Ludacris was central to the movement, as was Missy Elliott. So why would Kanye West invoke this Ludacris video in 2018? (Or for that matter, why would Lil Pump, who was only four years old the year “Get Back” premiered and The College Dropout was released?) Consider that “Get Back,” though an instantly iconic piece of art, was just one in a wave of videos in the late ‘90s and early 2000s that featured, among other qualities, larger-than-life setpieces and boisterous absurdity. He then leaves the restroom and marches through the streets, accompanied by what appears to be an all-women biker gang, decked out in pink-checkered skirts with matching blazers and newsboy caps.
Eventually Luda snaps, starts beating Fatlip up with his gargantuan fists and then bounces around the latrine to the song, with all the fire and energy of a WWE promo. He goes up to pee, then gets cornered at the urinal by the rapper Fatlip from The Pharcyde, who tries to pitch various business ventures to him. And if it evokes any past work in Jonze’s catalog, it’s not one of his West collaborations - it’s Jonze’s classic 2004 video for Ludacris’ “Get Back.”įor those who haven’t watched the video in, say, 14 years, here’s a brief refresher: Luda enters a public restroom, his hands and forearms swollen to such a cartoonish degree that he looks like Popeye. On the other hand, “I Love It” is just two guys in marshmallow suits tiptoeing after Givens like stray, horny puppies. Spike Jonze is credited as an executive producer on “I Love It,” his fourth video project with West after “Flashing Lights,” “Otis,” and “Only One.” (West and Amanda Adelson, who has produced shorts for Jonze in the past, are listed as co-directors.) Yet it’s a notable departure from their previous work together: “Only One” is a stripped-down, tender ode to West’s daughter “Otis” is pure stunting, a Maybach filled with models and the grinning mugs of West and JAY-Z and “Flashing Lights” is grim murder fantasy in which you can practically smell the leather and gasoline.