19. Good Morning – Kanye West
West’s teddy bear, albeit the omnipresent alter ego of our beloved Yeezy, was quite a deft character in this colorful and inspiring analogy of overcoming obstacles. The video, originally conceptualized by Takashi Murakami (who did all of Kanye’s album cover work), is on the list because of the concepts and the detail that went into its creation. Almost everything and ‘person’ represents something, from the losing of the gold chain after the car breaks down to the changing of the eyes when Drop Out Bear is in ‘reality’ versus in the clouds to the run-in (and touch down) with the football team, and is captivating graphically and thematically from beginning to end. ,” is equally compelling – with beautifully drawn depictions of carelessness and problems that are framed through his lyrics, this video and song is also quite underrated for creative value and lyrical content.
18. Sneak Attack – DJ Qbert’s Wave Twisters
This video is simply great. It’s hilarious, it’s artfully made, there is a lot going on – but not too much that you’re confused out of your mind. It matches up with the audio track so well that everything just falls into rhythm when viewed.
17. Do For Love – Tupac
Tupac was many things – and a creative visionary was definitely one of them. It’s not surprising that this ode to ‘Pac was created by Bill Parker in 1997. With claymation and graphic art that is ‘Oh-so-90s,’ Parker was able to capture the lyrics in such telling visuals, graphic gestures, and without looking as immature as many of the other attempts at animated that other rappers were doing even during the 2000s (we won’t name any names ).
16. Feel Good Inc. – Gorillaz ft. De La Soul
In this twisted video, we find De La the most real thing in the entire feature. With amazing visuals juxtapose many of their other videos, the Gorillaz evoke feelings drastically different from their audio content, giving the combination a different type of overall feeling.
15. Shadrach – The Beastie Boys
The Beastie Boys, quite and lyrically talented, decided to give their live performance visuals to Klasky Csupo, the animation studio that also had a hand in the original Simpsons and The Rugrats. The studio, in turn, produced this ‘Impressionist’ piece in which every frame was hand-painted. Let that sink in – but first, watch the video. Now – recall – Every. Single. Frame. Was. Hand. Painted. If that doesn’t qualify this video as one of the greatest animated videos – maybe the color array or the detail will, but I’m still stuck at the hand-painted fact.
