Kanye West - Homecoming

What this video is

Released as the fifth and final single from Graduation (2007) — the closing chapter of Kanye West's 'College Trilogy' — 'Homecoming' arrived during a pivotal cultural moment when hip-hop was expanding its commercial and aesthetic vocabulary into arena-rock and pop crossover territory. The video's black-and-white Chicago location photography transforms it into an urban documentary love letter, directly visualizing…

Why it matters

Landmark example of prestige hip-hop music video as urban documentary. Hype Williams' conscious rejection of his own maximalist signature style in favor of stripped-down, high-contrast black-and-white location photography marked an inflection point in the director's career and in hip-hop visual…

The director

Harold 'Hype' Williams (b. August 1, 1970, Queens, NY) is an American music video director, film director, producer, and screenwriter. He studied film at Adelphi University and founded production company Big Dog Films in 1993. Widely considered the seminal…