Billboard (November 22, 1997) p.47 SCREEN SAVERS by Amy Linden A new wave of directors is making hip-hop video bolder, brighter and more bombastic than ever. Who pumped up the color and volume, and what kind of shelf-life will the current trends have? Fish-eye lenses. Pyro and flashspots. Elaborate tracking shots that would bring tears to Martin Scorsese's eyes. Aerial photography to rival anything in the latest action-adventure flick. Color so deep, and saturated that it puts the "k" in Kodachrome. Jet skis. Cigarette boats. Hummers and Motoquzzis. Mega Man, Superfly, Josephine Baker and a wayward elephant. Hip-hop video directors have moved past the grainy, slice-of-life epics that were the hallmark of the West coast gangsta-rap era. Gone are the scowling homies in the. 64's, strapped to the nines, guzzling their 40's and going to endless barbecues. Say goodbye to the authentic but relentlessly cheap me-and-the-crew portraits. Led by a new breed, among them F Gary Gray (TLC's "Waterfalls"), Brett Rather (Wu-Tang Clan's "Killer Bees"), and Lance "UN" Rivera, (Lil Kim's "Not Tonight"), today's new hip-hop aesthetic is technologically advanced, shamelessly excessive, in-your-face, bolder, righter, pricier and more bombastic than ever. URBANIZED INTERPRETATION The leading liqhts of the latest video vanguard are Paul Hunter and Hype Williams. Between them, the two young directors have developed clips, For nearly everyone. It is literally impossible to have MTV or the Box on for more than 20 minutes without seeing, a video that either Williams, who is based in New York, or Hunter, a California native, has directed or co-directed. Hype Williams' work, in particular, is credited with helping to change the look of rap videos. His explosive, experimental and delightfully whacked-out style is perhaps best typified by the videos he's lensed For Busta Rhymes ("Woo Ha! Got You A11 In Check," "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See") and. Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott ("The Rain [Supa Dupa Fly]," "Sock It 2 .Me"). The latter video, which cost a rumored seven Figures, Features a sort of urbanized interpretation of Japanese animation, further pushing the creative envelope. Williams' videos are so distinctive that he, like Hunter, has already spawned a slew of wannabes, who mimic the unique camera angles and saturated colors that are his hallmark. In fact, in what is either a shout-out or a slap in the Face, Williams' and Hunter's sometimes over-the-top look has been parodied by comedian Chris Hock's hilarious video "Champagne." THE LOOK OF HONEY AND LONELINESS While Paul Hunter's 'look" may not be as easy to identify, as Hype Williams', he is no less in demand. Hunter's current roster of clients includes Mariah Carey (Honey), Puff Daddy ("The Benjamins" remix), LL Cool J ("Phenomenon") and Boyz II Men (4 Seasons of Loneliness"). His expansive cinematic style has earned the 31-year-old a nomination for best director at this year's Billboard Music Awards. Former filmmaker Hunter claims that he has always wanted to "do something different" and that desire helped Fuel his career. When asked why rap videos now appear to be so much more experimental and cutting edge, Hunter, who began making videos Pour )/ears ago, is quick to credit the musicians themselves. "The artists are becoming more creative," he offers. "They're looking at alternative artists and Madonna and Michael Jackson. It's becoming more competitive visually. So the response to the ideas and the music changes. Or does it really change? While some see a definite shift in styles and attitudes, other industry observers will tell you that, while the contemporary video scene is more visually intense and certainly more eyecatching, it is, in many ways just a new, beefed-up version of an old aesthetic. According to Stephen Hill, director of music programming at MTV, the new rap visuals are in many ways a throwback, to the upbeat, colors-soaked party videos of the early and mid- '80s. Hill cites the pop/rap videos of artists like, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Kwame and Young MC as being, in their own ways, just as entertaining and visually fixated (albeit in a cruder, cheaper Form) as the current milieu. "When grunge took a hold, the cycle (in hip-hop) turned back to being more serious, and you had to keep it real," says Hill. "So you had videos by NWA and Dr. Dre." As he sees it, it is a combination of talent and the intrinsically fickle and changing nature of pop--and hip-hop in particular--that helped bring about the era of no-holds- barred production, dazzling digital effects and cinemascope reality. BLUNTED ON FISH-EYES Hunter is blunt when asked whether all of the emphasis on special effects and technology has possibly gotten a little out of hand. "What about all the alternative groups?," he asks. "How many videos are we gonna see with the guys standing behind microphones, playing? I think it's interesting because [I'm hearing this criticism] a lot. I've heard that MTV isn't going to play, anymore fish-eye-lens videos. I think that rap music gets hit really bad when there's something starting to happen and people start complaining." Hill too has heard the complaint that all rap videos look alike and, like Hunter, he takes that beef with a grain of salt. Nothing that innovation has always been followed by Formula, Hill adds that "There's a Formula For videos that has worked, over the last couple of years. And like the [surplus of] videos with pools and women around it, this one is getting to a point where there are too many. We're coming to a different saturation point." Make that color-saturarted point.