There’s no better way to follow perfection than by absolute failure. I have to admit, for a 17-year-old child (yes, child) DeAndre Cortez Way, better known as Soulja Boy Tellem, is quite successful. His second hit “Yahhh” actually hit the bronze medal (top 3) in New Zealand—and no one knows music like New Zealand. This song’s music video is the center of our review today.
The song may be a hit, but the video is another story. As we’ve seen in our first review of "DVNO," we review everything through the eyes of four simple questions. Let’s go through it and discuss how this video did.
Question One. Is the music video 99% stuff other than the artist's head? No, it’s mainly our dear artist Mr. Way’s head and fellow artist “Arab” (Pronounced Aye – Raab.) There are a few moments where it’s not the artist's head, but they do not add up to over one percent of the entire video. I discount any portion if the artist or variation of the artist is still in the frame. In the case of this video, there is a very short claymation version of the artist, which is also in the video. In fact, they are seen together in parts of the video, which cause the point system to skew. For the reason of artist duplication, the score for this question is negative one.
Question Two. Is the cinematography pure awesomeness? Sorry, no here is as well. There are no new camera angles pertaining to the hip-hop movement. If a previous artist of the same rap style uses the camera angle that’s supposedly “special,” then the video receives a zero. In the case of this video, a previous song from Busta Rhymes called “Whoo Hah!! (I Got You All in Check)” uses a fish-eye lens as Busta yells into it. This song was released in 1996. I guarantee that Mr. Way heard this song at the age of 6, saw the video less than a year later, and developed “Yahhh,” thereafter refining it for the next 11 years until perfection. That’s just an assumption though. Sorry, still negative one.
Question Three. Is the video easy to follow? Do you know what’s goin' on? Sure. One point. In the video, Mr. Way and follow rap artist Arab are skipping school but decide to go anyway. While on the way to school, Britney Spears, Hillary Clinton, Duane "Dog" Chapman and some random guy with glasses wants his autograph. (At first I thought it was just four ugly people.) His response is simply “Yahhh!” Zero for three so far. Congrats!
Question Four. Does the theme stay consistent throughout the video? They were so close I tell you. But at the very end of the video, he explains how he failed all of his classes. He failed all of his classes, but requests the teacher to “throw some D’s on it.” The song's music changes, and the theme of the video changes to how Mr. Way feels about his report card. Sorry Mr. Way, but I can’t even give you a “D” on your video.
Final Score: 0 / 4
Also as a side note, the origin of “throw some D’s on it” is from a song by Rich Boy called, “Throw Some D’s.” A “D” is short for a Dayton, a wheel built for strength for cars that use hydraulics. If the car were to use a normal wheel it has the possibility of cracking when the car comes down from a hop of, let’s say, four feet. Mr. Way did not use the context of this slang correctly, which should cause the scoring to go lower, but I will void this as it’s quite catchy, and a unique application to the phrase.
Busta Rhymes – "Woo Hah!!"
