New Prince Video Rocks Terrorism

[Unplugged]

New Prince Video Rocks Terrorism
(AP, 10/12/2004 7:06 AM)

By Jake Coyle

Prince, now a Jehovah's witness, has toned down his mojo, but the Purple One can still pack a political punch. His new music video, "Cinnamon Girl," is a big-budget production that follows the hardships and confusions of a teenage Arab-American girl in a post 9-11 America.

It stars Keisha Castle-Hughes ("Whale Rider") who concludes the video by imagining herself detonating a bomb in a crowded airport terminal.

The video, directed by Phil Harder (a seasoned veteran of music videos from Incubus to Liz Phair ), visualizes the lyrics of Prince's four-minute rocker. It uses a stylized type of illustrated animation, with Castle-Hughes filmed over a background of high contrast tints of black and beige.

Following an airplane crash, presumably 9-11, Castle-Hughes is beset by racism and prejudice because of her Arab ethnicity. After being chased by her schoolmates, she watches Arabic storefront signs be replaced with English ones and is chided by her more traditionally Islamic parents.

Prince sings, "Cinnamon girl mixed heritage/ Never knew the meaning of color lines/ 9-11 turned that all around/ When she got accused of this crime."

Disillusioned and angered, Castle-Hughes' character detonates a bomb in an airport terminal, exploding herself and others. However, a reverse motion immediately following the explosion reveals that it is only a thought of hers.

"I kind of think about it as how far can her imagination go when the world comes down on her pretty heavy," says Harder. "None of it's literal, but you get the picture."

Prince only appears in the video intermittently playing guitar and singing. He gave Harder much room for creativity, but was very involved in the video, following its production throughout.

Seeds of controversy are already beginning to grow, even though the video — the first from Prince's new "Musicology" — will not begin running on MTV until next week. (It is currently viewable on Yahoo and on Prince's pay fan club site, www.npgmusicclub.com.)

But Harder says, "Kids are seeing real death and war on television. Kids are smarter than people think and know what's going on in the world." He adds, "The main motivation is to get people to talk about it."

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You can watch the video here (http://progressive.stream.aol.com/aol/us/aolmusic/artists/sony/prince/prince_cinnamongirl_234klj_dl.mov) (You'll need Quicktime to play it)

I wonder: has Prince been in touch with Shapovalov? :hmmm:

[denial]

Thanks Staringelf .. I lke the video very very much .. my another precious collection ... the girl is also wearing TATU skirt ... I like the animation and color ... and the song and the title is cool ..

.. from political view .. I think its a proactive contibution by Prince .. such thing isn't imposible...

but I like the last part when he said .. "don't worry baby .. its going to be alright" ..
I wonder: what he mean ..

[Unplugged]

Actually I like it too.

If Shap directed it, he'd probably be just agressive and blow up the whole thing without any explanation, but here we see the girl is chased because she's arab, and has to deal with a lot of pressure, and she justs reaches a point where she feels like blowing up everything... but then comes to her senses and, although remaining sad, does not option for violence. So I think it's a good video. And yes, the animations and colors are nicely done :D

The music is ok, but not my style.

[nath]

An interesting , "good" and dramatic clip.....the cultural identity problem is very well shown here...
Of course this clip is a "dilemn"...i mean should has it to be shown or not ?....because it could be received , read, seen with two radical opposite views....

1/Some of people will show it in thinking ....Oh! Americans treat her badly , she is right to have such thoughts....and will see her as an exemple of courage...-->So it would be a validation of the Terrorism (even if she doesn't make explose the bomb ..the thoughts were there..)

2/Others would think: oOf course it's bad to be judged like that ...but is it because you are judged like that that you have to kill people in return ?.....
...I mean is this act , in a such case, justified by a true and deep "feeling of ""Cultural identity"""(i know the words are not the good here...that's why I write them between double "" ""....just have to try to find the good words to change them...so no offense here please...) or just by a "personnal hurt " which uses a "political or ideological problem " to solve it ...so a personnal reveange....
Is this girl really "FREE" of her acts...or does she just acts under the PRESURE of her parents and her education ?.....

A lot of questions..... :rolleyes:

So ...i don't really know what to think about this clip...
I mean
-if it makes some people thinking about the tolerance and the respect of others idea, i would say it's a good clip....

-if it makes 99 persons thinking about the tolerance and the respect of others idea BUT encourages just 1 person to kill in giving to him/her some "valable reason"...i would say it's a Very Dangereous Clip....

The power of Media is very strong ...so ......I don't know!

[haku]

Thanks staringelf :)

Excellent video, a true piece of art, immensely better than what Shap has done with the NATO video. This one has a deep message and shows prejudice against innocent people, that's very well done, and it needs to be said. Unfortunately US media will probably censor the video.

Arab people have been treated unfairly in the US after 9/11, that for sure, Arabs and anyone looking "Mediterranean" for that matter.
I remember last year, 3 French people were asked to leave a plane (of a US airline) because they looked "Arab" (they weren't, they were just southern French people with a tan, lol) and that was making the American passengers nervous. They were kicked out of the plane, just because of the way they looked! Geez. :rolleyes:

[Unplugged]

Some of people will show it in thinking ....Oh! Americans treat her badly , she is right to have such thoughts....and will see her as an exemple of courage...-->So it would be a validation of the Terrorism (even if she doesn't make explose the bomb ..the thoughts were there..)if it makes 99 persons thinking about the tolerance and the respect of others idea BUT encourages just 1 person to kill in giving to him/her some "valable reason"...i would say it's a Very Dangereous Clip....
Yes, that's true! Because of being treated badly, she does not have the right to blow up an airport, and she shouldn't even think about how it would be if she did it. But I think it is kind of an alert - like, "see, if you pressure and isolate someone this much, there are risks that the person becomes hateful to the point of wanting to blow up an airport". That is how I interpretate it.

Unfortunately US media will probably censor the video.
From what I read, they will not censor it, at least for now. It's gonna be on MTV USA from tomorrow, so judging from the reactions, I guess, they will see... :rolleyes:

I remember last year, 3 French people were asked to leave a plane (of a US airline) because they looked "Arab" (they weren't, they were just southern French people with a tan, lol) and that was making the American passengers nervous. They were kicked out of the plane, just because of the way they looked! Geez.
:laugh: That's so extreme, it's laughable!

[spyretto]

Through the angel rain
Through the dust and the gasolene
Through the cruelty of strangers
To the neon dream
Long distance information
Just tell me where the manholes steam
A little girl waits on my station
With a new machine

On Detonation Boulevard

oh I can't watch it don't have quicktime installed :bum: :p