The progression of Lil Jon’s music videos from when he first came to prominence in the early 2000s is kind of amazing. Where his early clips featured nightclub brawls and strip club parties, his newer material has become more visually inventive. Case in point, the video for “Alive,” featuring Offset and 2 Chainz, makes use of some off-the-wall digital physics to smash, stretch, and distort the three Atlantans in some pretty off-putting ways.
Then there are the butts. The gluteus maximus is no stranger to the rap music video, but the ones on display here go beyond simple gyrations from twerking. They are rubbery and ridiculous, in a mind-meltingly humorous cartoon way, providing trampoline-like springboards for animated Jon to bounce off of in one scene and smashing him flat in the next. The whole thing is surreal and kind of dizzying, but you may find it difficult to look away.
Lil Jon explained the surreal concept in a press release by saying he wanted to do something different from the average rap video. ““With ‘Alive’ I really wanted to do something different, outside the normal, typical hip-hop video,” He says. “I’ve always been an artist that thinks ‘outside the box’ and gives my fans somethin’ fresh.”
In this case, it looks like he accomplished his mission, setting the bar and the excitement level astronomically high for whatever he does next.
