Runaway: Is Kanye West Ushering In a New Music Video?

Lately, there has been a lot of buzz around singer-songwriters scoring films, like Beck with Scott Pilgrim vs The World, Karen O for Where The Wild Things Are and, more recently, Daft Punk in Tron, but what about singer-songwriters making films for their music? These aren’t music videos we’re talking about though; these are films with a separate realized plot and story. Similar to Lady Gaga’s foray with ‘€œTelephone,’€ Kanye West released a short film last week entitled Runaway. What makes Runaway so interesting, and possibly groundbreaking, is that instead of banking on its weirdness to be recognized as a message, it relies on choreography, symbolism and the acting from artist Kanye West and model Selita Ebanks, in addition to the music of course.

The film starts out by making it obvious that this is Kanye West portraying Kanye West, with him driving along a deserted road until his car is struck by what appears to be a meteor. Only after coming to his senses does he realize the meteor was really a phoenix (Selita Ebanks). He then goes about saving Ebanks from a forest aflame and a car explosion, all while walking coolly away with the damsel in his arms to the opener ‘€œDark Fantasy,’€ a danceable rap ode to where West has been. After a self-parodying moment where Kanye catches the phoenix watching television and turns it off only to tell her ‘€œFirst rule in this world: don’t pay attention to anything you see in the news,’€ the movie moves to Kanye admiring the phoenix in his home while his thoughts are played out in ‘€œGorgeous.’€ Featuring Kid Cudi and Raekwon, ‘€œGorgeous’€ is a very heavily Cudi influenced track which could’ve been pulled straight off Man On The Moon with its distant vocals and viscerally described desires in the chorus. ‘€œGorgeous’€ plays straight into a remix of ‘€œPower’€ involving just the beat and backup vocals as well as a newly arranged organ and viola accompaniment.

All this keeps the movie moving forward as symbols fly by detailing Kanye’s fall from grace last year which climaxes in the introspective single ‘€œRunaway’€ in which West tells off all of his dinner guests for looking down on Ebanks and her awkward but good-natured style. Finally the movie comes to a breaking point in which Ebanks’ phoenix tells West that in our world ‘€œanything that is different you try to change.’€ Perhaps the most telling moment of West’s journey in Runaway occurs right there, as the auto tuned opening of the compelling ‘€œLost In the World,’€ comes up over West’s reaction when Ebanks tells him ‘€œAnd if I don’t burn, I will turn to stone,’€ and he replies ‘€œNo, I’ll never let you burn.’€ The movie closes in this manner, with ‘€œLost In The World,’€ a gripping merger between the beat styles in his first three albums and 808s and Heartbreak‘s auto tuned minimalistic honesty, being played over West chasing the phoenix as she burns a trail through the sky.

Overall it’s a powerful work of art which adds to West’s already impressive artistic résumé. Runaway is introspective as well as moving and the music alone is just as powerful as the film beneath it. It is that careful blending of choreography, imagery, music, acting and relevance that lends itself so well to what you experience as a viewer. It wouldn’t be surprising if more musicians go this route, and, while it is most certainly more expensive than a single music video, it is definitely worth it. That is to say that the power with which an intent viewing of Runaway delivers is greater than the sum of its parts.