will.i.am - I Got It From My Mama

What this video is

Released in summer 2007 as the lead single from will.i.am's third solo album Songs About Girls on Interscope Records, 'I Got It From My Mama' represents a transitional moment in hip-hop's relationship with mainstream pop and global lifestyle branding. The Brazilian beach setting evokes an aspirational, post-Black Eyed Peas-success cosmopolitanism, while the song's sample-heavy production (drawing on Magazine 60's…

Why it matters

A representative artifact of mid-2000s hip-hop pop crossover aesthetics: sample-driven production meeting glossy, high-budget beach performance visuals. Directed by Bryan Barber, whose Outkast-era work helped define hip-hop video grammar in the early 2000s, the video applies that kinetic,…

The director

Bryan Barber (born December 20, 1970) is an American music video and motion picture director. He directed his first music video for Outkast in 1998 and became known for narrative-driven, visually inventive videos blending hip-hop culture with retro Hollywood…