RM - Will Smith - Black Suits Comin' (Nod Ya Head) Deconstruction

Artist: Will Smith
Song: Black Suits Comin' (Nod Ya Head)
Genre: Rap
Director: Francis Lawrence
Audience: Fans of the movie Men In Black II
Year Released: 2002

Will Smith’s “Black Suits Comin' (Nod Ya Head)” is a performance based music video, which features references to the film franchise “Men In Black”. The references that are included in this song are names of characters, characters themselves and footage for the film. One of these is Will Smith who is playing is character Agent J throughout the video. The reason for this is because this song is actually the theme for “Men In Black II”.

Smith flying on a platform above a crowd of fans

As this is a music video advertising a sci-fi comedy film there are a lot of special effects used throughout the duration of this video. This is shown to the audience with aliens and characters from the film as well as some of the settings used which include the set Smith uses to perform and locations that the aliens and characters from the film are located. An example of this is where Smith is flying on a platform above the crowd. All of this footage will be done with the use of blue screens. This also ties in to the movie as most of footage needs the use of blue screens. In this video there is a short moment, which lasts 23 seconds, were the song stops this is due to the use of special effects were a human transforms into an alien.

Alien stopping the music video half way through

Throughout the video the location changes between space, where Smith is performing as well as behind the scenes and a space shuttle, to locations on earth and where aliens live. This is done to tie into the theory that there is extraterrestrial life surrounds us and to emphases the popularity of the first film.

Use of special effects

As the audience expects the focus is on Smith as he is the sole person singing this song. As well as this the focus does change to show the characters that feature in the film (as well as this video) and the reactions of people listening to Smith perform this song live to a worldwide audience. This is anchored with shots classes switching on televisions and shots on cities at night watching screens connected to skyscrapers.

Smith has released music for the majority of television shows and films he has featured in. Some examples are “Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire”, “Wild Wild West” and “Men In Black”. During these performances Smith is playing the characters that he plays during the television shows or films.