Song Choice

For my  music video I decided to use J. Cole's 'killers' it's  from an earlier mixtape of his and isn't quite known or has a music video either. I chose this song because i feel like that it is the right song to portray my narrative. The song is about how anyone can become a killer, in the first verse the artist is rapping from a first person perspective from a killer's first confessing to his mother about what he's done.The second verse he talks about how he the people he knew once before have no changed and are doing triple life. The third verse is about his younger days as a teen, and what his and his friends mentalities were.

                             

These are the lyrics for the song. The song doesn't have an official clean, radio edit. However there are clean versions on YouTube where all the swearing in the song is left blank. I can't find any clean lyrics, so i replaced the swearing with words that still helps portray the song's message.

[J. Cole - Verse 1]

Momma I just killed a man
My body still trembling can you feel my hand
Don’t shed no tears, it won’t be long before they find out it was me momma
This may be the last time you see me free ma
Don’t spend it cryin’
You did your best, me I was blessed, know you were stressed trying
To keep me out the streets, me ducking police
Trying not to make a peek to wake you up out your sleep
A drunk and high fool
Skipping class, flunking high school
I know you taught me better, somehow I never learned
Said I was playing with fire, somehow I never burned
You tried to set me straight, somehow I never permed
You tried to show me right, but somehow I never turned
Lost in a cloud of marijuana, are you ashamed of me
Dry your face mommy, your not to blame for me
See I’m a man, I gotta take whatever came for me
At times I wonder ’bout my father
Would it change for me if he was around?
Would I still be running 'round with the lowlife’s
Bum people with, no jobs, no life
Seen them brothers killed for no price
I watched his life flash before his eyes like a strobe light
I pulled the trigger momma
Tryna be hard, I ain't mean to kill the brother momma
But what’s done is done
I’m on the run, I live my life like a movie now it’s way too realer
Who woulda thought your baby boy woulda grew up to be a killer

Yeh, now I’m a killer
Guess I’m a killer
They got me in here with the killers
Yeah I mean the killers

[J. Cole - Verse 2]
I wonder whats in store for me
Lately been stressing, pray for blessings, hope that there’s more for me
Than just a simple life
Brothers that I used to hoop with is doing triple life
Gave up the jump shot
Work on the John shot
Who woulda thought I used to block this brother's lay ups
Now he’s in a cell layed up
I wish you well, stay up
Like insomniacs
This life can make a brother fold like a laundry mat
I sip this cognac though to ease my brain from all this pain
And so that I react slow, in this fast world
Slow brothers, fast girls
Girls give up self while these brothers hold triggers
Blast on ‘em
Hold up that old checker flag for ‘em
Chalk lines by the do not park sign
It’s deep, all these cold hearted brothers holding heat
I’d rather blast before they steal a brother
Tell ‘em now boy, don’t make me turn into a killer

Yeah, into a killer
Don’t make me turn into a killer
Yeah, to a killer, yeah yeah

[J. Cole - Verse 3]
To those who had love for me in the past
Who woulda thought time would fly by so fast
I remember back in class we used to make believe
Like it was draft day
Swore that we would make the league, be rich
Saturday morning had to rake the leaves, awww ish
Watch how they pile up
Seem like a mile up
I wash the blisters on my hand than I dial up my best friend
Skating rink is where we headed tonight
And if a brother disrespect, yes we ready to fight
In retrospect that  seemed petty
At the time, the issue was heavy
Cause life was all about your name
You had to scrap with any brother that would call you lame
Ashamed no doubt, so many brothers got they brains blown out
Snatched a brother chain and he got his name rolled out in obituaries
Another body in a cemetary
Another young brother in the penetentiary
And he don’t give a damn no missionary
Rap visionary, paint a picture bro pictionary
Tell you what it is, I’m a dictionary
I knew a brother that threw his self in every chick in every city that he went to
Went hard like the rent do
Till he met the wrong chick, man just came home ex-convict
And he stay on with that Thriller
Messing around with them killers

Yeah, with them killers
Messing around with them killers
Say I’m a killer

For my video, I want to use the first verse to portray a teenager, who is respected and loved by all. You see some shots with him and his family and his friends, to portray how innocent an good of a person he is. Around the chorus and the instrumental, i want to show how his world turns upside down because his sister goes through domestic abuse, this won't be shown but implied. Ever since the abuse, he acts different toward his family and friends in a negative way. This is during the second & 3rd verse. Everywhere he goes he's followed by a hooded figure after the abuse. Then there's a jump cut to a scene where he's washing his hands and looks up in the mirror, where he sees the hooded figure threatening his life with a weapon. You then see the hooded figure reveal himself, and it turns out to he him. As the hooded figure is threatening him, the original actor has a weapon of his own that he is drawing out. During the end of the 3rd verse and last chorus the screen goes black. You see only one of them come out of the bathroom, but you're not sure who it is that survived because they are dressed in completely different clothing. During all of this there will be shots of the artist wearing the last clothes seen rapping the song. My narrative is about a young person life can change because something sets them off (such as abuse). You see how they changed, and now they're conflicting with themselves of who they want to be, the old innocent them or the more new tough and stone cold them. I want the audience to guess who survives, because whoever survives gives a different message. If the old innocent them survives that portrays that the past always survive or that the good always survives. If the old them survives then it implies that the past is behind you and that your good self is gone soon as you inhabit sins. so there is two ways for the audience to imagine what had happened. I wanted the audience to guess who survived so that they can watch the music video over and over again.