Research: Video Analysis Of 'Purple Hills - D12'

The music video that I have chosen to analyse is Purple Hills by D-12, the censored version. The uncensored version contains a high volume of drug references and is called "Purple Pills". The song it self doesn't have a narrative, however the central theme of the song is towards the effects of different drugs, and this reflected through the video. At 0:07 you see slow and fast motion of the car driving backwards and forwards, which could implicate the loss of eye co-ordination when using drugs. In addition to this the nmusic video is set in a mythical place that does not exist and this again could be a result of them using drugs. The use of special effects (mainly the green screen) and also animation are used at 0:28, 0:30, 0:37, 0:38, 0:45, 1:02, 1:09, 1:14, 1:18, 1:27, and these are only the first few that are seen. But the green screen is only used when all of the members are together.

The first 10-15 seconds refers directly to what the viewer can see, Eminem says "I've been so many places, I've seen so many faces, but nothing compares to these blue and yellow purple hills" (the uncensored version switches "hills" with "pills"), the lyrics also reflect on the point that he's seen so many faces, and been everywhere, but at the end of the day the "hills" are what seem to calm him down. Eminem then begins to start rapping about his mum, which is then seen in the video as her busting into a skimpy outfit with 2 policemen behind her. This is a visual representation of what Eminem thinks of his mother. At around 40 seconds he says "This room makes me hallucinate" and what can be visually seen is Eminem having a tea party with life sized stuffed toys. 

Next up are Konartist and Kuniva, and at 1:05 Konartist says "Hey Von, you see me steppin' on these leprechauns?", and the video has both artists in a white room with reflective windows, which shows that they are in a mental institution, and the lyrics match what they seem to be saying. Then at around 1:10 Konartist then says "Yeah I took 'em all down with some parmesan, And I think my arm is gone, Yo it's probably numb", then you see Kuniva pull his arm (they're still in the little white room) and Kon's arm comes away from his body, furthering the implications of hallucinating  from the use of drugs, and the physical implementations from using drugs. 

Swift now takes over, and you clearly see him having an arm wrestle with a woman, and the table is surrounded by other women. This is seen as contraversial due to the fact that women are seen as sexual objects, but here they are seen as equal to men. At 2:42 you see Swift looking at what seems to be a female, but then the lyrics are shouted out (By Bizarre) "Swift, Chill", and this male turns around and looks at Swift. This is another reference towards hallucinations, and how your mind can interpret things differently.

Bizarre Leads on after the chorus, and he begins with "I'm at a rave, looking at babe, like she want it" and from 3:05 you see Bizarre dressed in clothes that don not seem to fit him (PVC shorts and fish net top), then when he says "looking at a babe, like she want it" you see 2 small females (that most likely have dwarf-syndrome) and are being provocative towards him. 3:24 there is some irony in the lyrics when Bizarre goes "Drugs Kill", blonde lady (using a blonde female could suggest the common stereo types that blondes are stupid) then says "Yeah Right", Bizarre's reply is "Chick I'm fo' real", so this whole song is talking about the use of drugs and the effects that seem to be wonderful, and then at the end the lyrics go against the whole song.

In this clip of 'Purple Pills' by D12, we see a purple hill landscape being overlooked by the sun, we cannot see beyond the landscape, but we can see that there are mysterious settings over there. The use of a purple hill shows how there are mythical landscapes in the video. The use of mythical places in the D12 video is a common motif regularly used by music artists in a variety of genres across the music industry.

As aforementioned there are also mythical landscapes in this clip. However another common motif is found in the video 'Purple Pills' through the use of materialism. Materialism is a common motif found in modern music videos particularly in the R&B, Hip Hop genre. The materialism is found when the artist is driving his car down the road in the opening moments of the video.






Written by Tyrone and Sid.