Joey Badass-Paper Trails

By:Fabien Thresher

Context

• Jo-Vaughn Virginie Scott better known by his stage name Joey Badass, is an American hip hop artist and rapper, born and raised in Brooklyn New York.

• Joey’s rapping is influcened by old school artists such as Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G

Conventions

• Similarly to NWA, Joey sets his music video in the streets. There are scenes of him to what appears to be his small flat- which shows how he is not rich, which suggests that the artist is rising from nothing; this is also a common convention of rap, hip hop as well as grime.

• As a common convention for rap, there are more expletives in the lyrics compared to other genres.

Establishing shot before the Joey starts rapping

Black and White throughout the whole video

Performance/Concept • This music video is a mixture of performance and concept.

Some parts of the music video we see Joey Badass lipsyncing along to the lyrics of the song.

• Although there is no story/narrative to the video, there are only several scenes put together throughout the music video to give the audience somewhat an idea of whats going on.

• The story goes along the lines of Joey wining a game of street craps and getting money and shoes. He later sells the shoes but gets someone to rob the shoes off the buyer.

Shoe box empty at the beggining of the video

Shoe box full of money at the end after Joey finds money any way he can.

Goodwin’s Theory• There are several elements relating to Goodwin’s theory.

There are several close ups of Joey throughout the music video, this is key element in to sell the artist.

• This music video is aimed more at the male audience as the video is based around the ‘struggle’ and how Joey is hustling. Specifically it will attract a audience who likes/ is intrested in the gangster/hustler lifestyle

• Relationship between lyrics and visuals, as the lyrics “its the dollar bills that kills” we see someone getting shot and robbed.