#Lsd asap rocky youtube series#

#Lsd asap rocky youtube series#

The narrative then continues with a series of tracking shots, following Rocky as he moves through the streets of the city in a seemingly aimless manner, taking in theВ exaggerated lights of the city, made moreВ prominentВ by visual effects. The incoherent, nonlinear structure of the video is most likely chosen due the fact it is showing the effects of LSD, trying to recreate a 'trip' induced by the drug. The music video and, by extension, the story, begins with an aerial shot spiralling upwards of A$AP Rocky smoking LSD, setting the scene as the entire video has aВ psychedelic drug-trip-like feel to it due to the fluid camera movements, visual effects, bright colours of mise-en-scene and the transition edits between shots.

The music video was directed by Dexter Navy, who has done a few of A$AP Rocky's videos among others for artists from the Hip-Hop genre, and co-directed by the artist himself who is a fan of the film it is based on. There is a clear intertextual reference as the entire video, bar the 03:13-04:33В section which uses a different song, is based on a French film set in Tokyo (the same location as this music video) called 'Enter the Void' (directed by Gasper Noe, 2009) which follows similar themes to the song and uses similar settings and effects. It follows some of the typical music video codes and conventions that Andrew Goodwin highlighted as there is a definite relationship between the lyrics and the visuals as the song is based around usage of the drug LSD, and also includes themes of love and sex, all of which are shown in the video, to some extent there is also a clear relationship between the music and the visuals as the edits and camera movement follow the tune and beat of the song the video also has a lot of close up of Rocky, which may have been demanded on part of the record company as suggested by Goodwin.

Due to the heavy use of special effects, the video could be classed as 'the special effects extravaganza', one of the six central genres of music videos, theorised by Jon Gow. A$AP Rocky's video for 'L$D' combines elements of narrative, concept and some performance, all basic video structures as stated by theorist Joan Lynch, as there is a basic narrative of meeting a woman in Tokyo, however, this is overshadowed by a heavy use of effects, particularly in the edits between shots and there is a section of performance lip-syncing.