Hype Williams

Hype Williams is one of the world's most popular music video directors. His first video was made in 1991, and he has consistently made videos for top artists up to the present day.

The genres that he typically works with are rap and Hip-Hop, and he frequently collaborates with Kanye West, Mary J. Blige, and LL Cool J. His videos are known for distinctive colour schemes and exotic mise-en-scene. His earlier works make use of fish-eye cameras, but more recently his videos have featured shots in regular widescreen ratio, while a second shot is split and placed in the upper and lower bars.

Will Smith - Gettin' Jiggy Wit It - 1997

This is a prime example of use fish-eye camera, which Williams used almost without fail until about 1995, where the trend came to an end. This video has high contrast between blue, white and black, and uses several inventive set-ups, such as an Egyptian theme and a dance sequence by the statue of liberty.

Jay-Z - Big Pimpin' ft. UGK - 2000


Big Pimpin' is a classic example of a rap/hip-hop video. It includes a vast array of stereotypical rap cliches, like a boat, a beach, hundreds of scantily clad women, money and alcohol running free, large party scenes and high angles. This is one of the first uses of the widescreen camera, which Williams now frequently uses, perhaps most noticeably in LL Cool J's 'Control Myself', in which the top and bottom space show a different scene.




Kanye West - Diamonds from Sierra Leone - 2005


Shot in both the Czech Republic and Sierra Leone, this video is an example of Williams movement towards broadening the locations of his videos - he would later go on to film 'Stronger' by Kanye West in Japan. The video is shot entirely in black and white, and if it weren't for West's perfomance sequences, could be presented as a short film. This idea of the 'short film as music video' was further explored in 'Blame it' by T-Pain, which had opening credits, citing Williams and several celebrity guest stars. By the mid noughties Williams had begun to stray away from traditional  rap videos, and began to explore more serious topics, such as the blood diamond industry in this video.


Coldplay - Viva La Vida - 2009
This shows Williams departure from rap or hip-hop videos, and into alternative rock. Here, he has experimented with texture,  to coincide with the album artwork for Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends. This is a performance piece, so there are lots of shots of the vocalist and instruments, unlike in previous videos. The orange colour scheme which gives the impression of a classical painting indicates another change for Williams as he expands his music video genres.