Lil Jon, Offset, 2 Chainz - Alive ft. Offset, 2 Chainz

What this video is

Released January 26, 2018 as a single on Geffen Records, 'Alive' marks Lil Jon's return to mainstream visibility after a period of relative commercial quietude, leveraging two of Atlanta trap's most commercially dominant 2017–2018 figures — Offset (then riding peak Migos momentum with 'Culture II') and 2 Chainz — as co-signatories. The choice of a fully CGI animated video rather than a conventional performance or…

Why it matters

Represents a notable convergence of legacy crunk identity (Lil Jon, originator of the early-2000s crunk movement) with 2018 Atlanta trap's feature economy and a fully animated CGI production mode uncommon in hip-hop at the time. The video is an early mainstream example of Houdini-pipeline…

The director

Elliott Sellers is a Los Angeles-based director and cinematographer repped by Doomsday Entertainment, with credits including Christina Perri 'Human' (2014), ZHU 'In the Morning' (2016), and Young Thug 'Chanel' (2018). Erik Ferguson (@fergemanden) is a…