Everyone once in a while a music video or visual can bring to life of a song you might otherwise have passed by. French Montana has succeeded in doing just that to “No Stylist” with this incredible visual featuring multiple cinematic styles and hip hop legends Slick Rick, Young Thug, Killa Cam’ron, A$AP Rocky, and more.
Watch it below and keep reading for the key visual elements that make this video on of the year’s best.
Visual moments that put this video on another level:
#1. Gritty Opening that evokes illmatic album art. This hits a classic hip hop note and sets us up for high energy. They continue this low budget footage outside of a bodega throughout the video and it really adds an authentic feel to balance out the highly shot fashion sequences.
#2. Trailing shots of French walking through what looks like a castle draws us into the setting almost instantly. From the bedroom full of designer threads to the green garden, this series of shots interwoven do a lot to set the scene of classic wealth.
#3. Killa. Randomly cutting to Cam’rom in a pink fur hoodie should be in every hip hop video. When is someone going to make the Dipset bio pic??
#4. Models everywhere. Highly produced quick cuts throughout the video of models both walking the runway in the ballroom of a castle and posing POV style in front of a caramel backdrop make this a party you want to be at.
#5. Drake’s verse is, for the most part, split between the fashion show venue and then tight but moving head shots in the dressing room. This does a lot to give you the feeling that you are right in the mix of things and on the move in this world.
#6. And of course Slick Rick himself, hanging out of a topless vintage car that is floating in front of various green screened in backdrops, says it all.