JAY-Z - The Story of O.J.

What this video is

Released July 5, 2017, as the flagship visual for JAY-Z's critically acclaimed album 4:44 (Roc Nation/TIDAL), 'The Story of O.J.' arrives at the intersection of Black Lives Matter discourse, mainstream hip-hop's pivot toward financial literacy rhetoric, and the post-Obama reckoning with persistent racial inequality. By adopting the visual language of the 'Censored Eleven' — Warner Bros. cartoons now banned for…

Why it matters

A watershed moment for animated music video as high-concept sociopolitical art. 'The Story of O.J.' demonstrated that hip-hop visual culture could deploy animation — historically coded as children's entertainment — as a vehicle for unflinching racial critique. Its Grammy nominations across Record,…

The director

Mark Romanek (b. September 18, 1959, Chicago) is an American director known for music videos, feature films, and photography. He directed his first music video in 1986. He holds three Grammy Awards for Best Short Form Music Video and 20 MTV VMAs. In 1997 he…