2nd Music Analysis. Jay-Z - Dirt off Your Shoulder.

Dirt Of Your Shoulders was the second single released off Jay-Z's 2003 album The Black Album. The Lyrics mean there are always people who are trying to put you down and who are jealous of your success. In this song Jay-Z brags about his lavish lifestyle as is shown within the video as there are close ups of flash cars and jewellery and is basically saying that all the jealous people he can simply brush off his shoulder.

The video is narrative with Jay-Z showing off his lifestyle and singing to the camera being confident. In the video it shows Jay-Z with a lot of microphones around him which could also suggest that he is famous. there is  also girls outside the room which he is in this also has the same effect.

The colours of the video are very dark this is a convention of a R&B song as the dark colours show their dark mystical side and also having dark colours show off his jewellery better. The video starts off with a very expensive looking car pulling up and Jay-Z gets out this shows off his lavish lifestyle also. As the song starts the cutting off the shots become very quick and also go in time with the music this shows the song to be very fast paced.


Throughout the video the main theme is that of lavish cars and good looking girls this could be Jay-Z saying to all the jealous people look what I've got. Half way through the video Jay-Z clicks his fingers which causes the whole of the cities lights to go out illustrating that he is in charge of everything. The infra-red camera used shows who is there through their body heat this could be seen in a sexual way and it gives a colourful ending to a dark mystical video.

There is no musical instruments shown in the whole of the video this is because all of the attention is on Jay-Z throughout the whole video. There is a lot of microphones around him which shows he is at a radio interview singing while it shows the people on the other end of the radio listening to the song this shows that Jay-Z is famous and everyone knows it. The fast pace of cutting in the video is a usual convention of a hip-hop/R&B video.

At the start of the video there is the main narrative aspect where it says "5 minutes earlier" and later on says "later..." this is a good thing to have in the video as it lets the audience know what is going on. Also I want to have writing in my video so has given me some ideas to this. Dirt Of Your Shoulder was later again released with Linkin Park which the video has a complete different feel as Linkin Park are from a rock genre. This goes against the conventions of a usual hip hop artist collaborations.