Common - Drivin' Me Wild ft. Lily Allen

What this video is

Released in 2007 at the height of Kanye West's production dominance and Common's critical commercial peak, 'Drivin' Me Wild' represents a landmark transatlantic hip-hop crossover, pairing Chicago conscious rap with British pop sensibility at the moment Lily Allen was ascending internationally. The Kanye West-produced track samples Rotary Connection's 1971 soul catalog, situating it within the soul-revival aesthetic…

Why it matters

A definitive artifact of the mid-2000s conscious hip-hop/pop crossover moment. The video demonstrates the era's appetite for narrative-forward, cinematically grounded music videos over performance-only formats. Its transatlantic collaboration model — Kanye-produced, Chicago MC, British pop…

The director

American film, television, and music video director from Baltimore, Maryland. Launched Robot Film Company in 2000. Won the 2007 MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction for Erykah Badu's 'Honey.' Grammy-nominated for Nas's 'One Mic.' Feature film debut with…