This is the first video they shot for “Flashing Lights” (mine and seemingly everyone’s favorite song off Graduation). It is cool, but not nearly as cool/interesting as the Spike Jonze directed video. Also not as interesting as the other video they shot for the song. Obviously KW wanted to get the visual component for the song right but a couple of questions come to mind:

a) Would an artist without the financial capital of Kanye be able to go at it for three takes, only one of which looks like it didn’t cost a ton of money (Spike Jonze can’t come cheap, even if the video is simple)?

b) What kind of artistic vision does Kanye have to recognize that both other videos, which are certainly rad, could be improved upon by making a video that has very little ‘flair’ to it?

c) Kanye has always been one of my favorite artists simply because he is so contradictory in terms of being hyper-boisterous and hyper-self-deprecating. I think all of these videos showcase this contradiction in a variety of ways.

Nonetheless it is interesting to see the process develop over these three different videos. And let’s not forget about this.