Puff Daddy - It's All About The Benjamins (Remix)

What this video is

Released in 1997 as the third single from Puff Daddy's debut album No Way Out, this remix video arrived during the most commercially dominant moment for East Coast hip-hop and Bad Boy Records specifically. The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1998. The track popularized the term 'Benjamins' as slang for $100 bills and crystallized the hip-hop mogul ethos of institutional wealth-building. The…

Why it matters

A canonical artifact of late-90s East Coast rap excess, the video codifies the Bad Boy Records collective visual grammar: multi-rapper ensemble staging, luxury signifiers, high-energy cutting, and theatrical lighting. Its rapid editing pace (0.68s avg shot) set a template for hip-hop video…

The director

Emmy-nominated American filmmaker and co-founder of PRETTYBIRD production company. Graduated from Cal State Northridge with a degree in Radio, TV & Film. Entered music video directing in 1995. In 2004, the Washington Post named him one of the 'most seminal…