Music video conventions
- Ioachim Stetca
- Mar 26, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 28, 2025
As soon as I chose creating a music video for the A2 project, I knew it would be a on a song by Pashanim.
Therefore in this post I will analyze two music videos of his and another one, of the same genre by Symba, a fellow rapper from Berlin.
Starting off, I decided to do myself a music video for 'Shababs Botten', Pashanim's first true hit, that was released in summer 2019. I will analyse the music video to 'Shababs Botten' first.
PASHANIM- 'SHABABS BOTTEN'
Link to music video:
The video starts with an image of a pair of 'Nike air max 90' sneakers hung by the laces on a traffic light. This image has a deeper meaning, shoes hung by cables or traffic lights indicates a spot where one can buy drugs from street dealers.
The image then switches to a group of young people, maybe teens that sit on a balcony.
One of them is talking on a phone. The image switches back to the street corner where the clip began, this time showing the street's name.
Next, the same guys that were pictured on a balcony throw down the stairs from one another a bag of weed. The next shot is of two guys running, while the music kicks in with 'shababs botten' , which in berlin slang means youths running. Shabab,( الشباب ash-Shabāb) is an Arab word for youth and botten means running from something, usually police, in berlin slang German. The song incorporates many words of Arabic an Turkish origin, showcasing the diversity of the Berlin demographic. The rapper himself is of Kurdish descent.
Next shot is of a group of people, with Pashanim in the middle, talking on a older cellphone, usually linked with drug dealers.
When the line 'TNs rocken' from the refrain kicks in, the video focuses on shots of the Nike air max plus sneakers. The term TN comes from the logo on the heel of the shoe, it means tuned air, and it's a technology used by Nike in this sneaker. Air max plus has a long history of being associated with crime activity.
The whole music video has been filmed in two main location, on the balcony of a block of flats and on a street junction where the main group of people are staying.
Blocks of flats, usually found in 'the projects', government owned housing for low income residents, are notorious hotspots for crime activity.
The street junction and corner houses have a long presence withing the hip-hop and trap music videos. It all started with Wu-Tang Clan and A Tribe Called Quest, who started showcasing the daily struggles of African Americans who lived in run down neighborhoods. The corner houses were places drug dealers would usually be found, trying to sell their stock.
Pashanim is seen driving a moped, a recurring motif in his videos, it appears also in the music video of 'Airwaves', hinting to his passion for these types of motorcycles. Mopeds are also used by drug dealers to commute through the city because they are very mobile and don't spark the interest of the police, like expensive cars would.
There are a few interesting transitions in the clip. Several zoom outs are seen, a 360 spin of the camera occurs and a lighting pole is used as a transition between two images.
Time remapping is used constantly to synchronize the music to the video, with some scenes being filmed in slow-motion while others are a little sped up.
Towards the end of the video the people from the street junction pull up a flag with a bear on it. This is the flag of Berlin, it's presence in the video hinting at the artist's background.
PASHANIM- 'AIRWAVES'
Link to music video:
In this music video Pashanim decided to break many conventions of the Rap music video genre, making a parody of the cliche elements usually found in this type of videos.
For starters the whole video is filmed in a fancy neighborhood, all of the cast are teenagers that seem inoffensive, there are no drugs or weapons being shown on camera.
The only time some thugs are shown, it's for comedic purposes only. Being older than the rest of the cast they should inspire fear into the viewer, instead, they don't show weapons or drugs, they proudly sport 'Airwaves' chewing gum.
There's also a lack of expensive, sport cars, a recurring motif in many videos, instead, Pashanim only rides a moped, mocking the convention of rappers boasting their vast amounts of money.
The music video starts with an low angle shot of a building, gradually rotating. The building depicted will feature throughout the rest of the video.
The next shot is of Pashanim pulling up on a moped to that same building. By doing so the central figure of the video, Pasnahim, links up with the rest of the actors, that wait for him in a park at the base of the building.
After brief shots of the entourage of the artist, in slow-mo, the camera catches them all as a group, with Pashanim in the middle, staying on his moped. They all start to lip-sync to the music.
As the refrain kicks in, the group of people burst out the gates of the park into the streets.
The outfits of the people appearing in the video are also very important, the video reflects the 'berliner' style of clothing, football jerseys coupled with nike air maxes or shox, Gucci bags and jeans.
Brands such as Prada, Lacoste, Emporio Armani, Arc'teryx or Nike can be seen worn by the actors, hinting at the social statute of the actors.
Another important detail that is easy to miss is that, during the scene shot in the inner garden, Pashanim wears a jersey of the team AC milan, while his close friend, with the scooter sports a jersey of the rival team Inter Milano. The two, standing close one to another signify unity. The video also closes with them two standing of the same moped.
There are also several shots of a particular football jersey with the player Zidane on it's back.
They appear as the refrain of the music kicks in:
'Airwaves in mein'n Jeans und Trikot von Zizou'
Zizou is the nick-name Zidane had during his football career.
The outro of the video contains the text 'Costello Enterprises Berlin 2020', while the images change quickly and show random people on the street.
Costello Enterprises is the although bearing a fancy name is just another Instagram account of Pashanim's.
Here again, Pashanim mocks the more established rappers who usually have their own production houses that are featured at the end of their videos.
SYMBA- 'BATTLEFIELD FREESTYLE'
This music video opens up with the rapper, Symba vibing in an apartment while smoking a cigarette at his window.
The music video starts with the title of the music, below the title there are three emojis. The use of emojis and the overall vibe of the video are reminiscent of Pashanim's videos. In fact Pashanim has a cameo in a scene, where he is shown standing beside Symba.
This music video is fairly different in some ways from those of Pashanim. It focuses more on the artist rather than on a group of people. Of course there are some shots where Symba is accompanied by others, but mostly it's just him, vibing through the city and dancing throughout. This video also shows some shots from the studio, where the artist records the music.
By combining both the 'Performance' and 'Interpretive' styles of music videos in one the artist delivers a strong finished product, that is both pleasing and also professional.
The link to the site on the image is there in the music video as well. The site is nonexistent, but 'Playboysmafia' is an ensemble of Berlin rappers, both Symba and Pashanim are part of it.
From these three videos that I analyzed I want to incorporate some features in my own music video as well.
I like the idea of mocking traditional trap videos, by not showing expensive jewelry or cars.
I won't obviously show any drugs or weapons in my video, but I will try to substitute those items with others that look similar, looking to make my video a parody as well.
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