Jay-Z’s ‘Moonlight’ music video does more than simply show ‘Friends’ with an all-black cast
THE latest music video for a track off of the “4: 44” album only features about a minute of rapping from Jay-Z. But the video serves as a sort of meta- commentary on black representation in media and artistic ownership.
Released Friday on Tidal (and everywhere next week), the video for “Moonlight” features some of the biggest rising stars in comedy re- enacting, line-forline, scenes from a quintessential ‘Friends’ episode.
Directed by ‘ Master of None’ co- creator Alan Yang, the video even features a remake of the opening to the NBC sitcom - but using the song “Friends” by Whodini.
Comedian Jerrod Carmichael (“The Carmichael Show”) plays Ross. Issa Rae of HBO’s ‘ Insecure’ plays Rachel. Lil Rel Howery (‘Get Out’) plays Joey and Lakeith Stanfield (‘Atlanta’) plays Chandler. Tessa Thompson (‘Creed’) plays Monica and Tiffany Haddish (‘Girls Trip’)
plays Phoebe.
The actors are wearing almost exactly the same clothing as the characters in the 1996 ‘Friends’ episode. The set looks the same. The shots are the same. When the cast takes a break, Carmichael chats with comedian Hannibal Buress offstage, who tells him what they’re shooting is “garbage and “it’s just episodes of ‘Seinfeld’ but with black people.”
“It’s ‘Friends,’” Carmichael interjects, but Buress cuts him off: “Who asked for that?”
“When they asked me to do it, I was like, alright, this is something subversive, something that would turn the culture on its head,” Carmichael says.
“Well, you did a good job of subverting good comedy,” Buress says. “You gonna do black ‘Full House’ next? ‘Family Ties?’ Why stop there? ‘Home Improvement?’”
In the Jay-Z music video, the cast returns to the set and continues acting out scenes from ‘Friends’, but Carmichael is clearly shaken. The camera shows him out of the moment as Howery, Stanfield, Thompson and Haddish recite their lines. But when Rae re- enters the scene, she has a serious, knowing look on her face and signals to Carmichael to be quiet. She leads him off the set, and finally, we hear Jay-Z rapping: “We stuck in La La Land/ Even when we win, we gon’ lose.”
That line, and the song’s title, is an allusion to the unprecedented Oscars flub, when ‘La La Land’ was mistakenly named the winner of best picture rather than the actual winner, ‘Moonlight’.”
The mix-up, some argued, distracted from what should have been the ‘Moonlight’ cast and crew’s moment.
The song then jumps from the intro chorus to the last verse, with Jay-Z rapping, “Y’all n-- s still signin’ deals? Still? After all they done stole, for real? After what they done to our Lauryn Hill?” - referencing the singer’s legal battles.
Carmichael walks off the set and sits on a park bench, reminiscent of a scene in ‘ La La Land’, and stares up at the full moon. The song fades and the audio of that Oscars flub plays: Warren Beatty says, “And the Academy Award for best pictures goes to,” then Faye Dunaway proclaims, ‘ La La Land!’ The audience applauds. — WPBloomberg