This video features a striking piece of visual art by Dan Wolfe which manifests before your eyes thanks to the sped-up video which wonderfully transposes Aesop Rock’s flow into the visual aesthetic of graffiti art. The track comes from the alt-hip hop artist’s fifth album None Shall Pass (2007).
Wolfe’s masterpiece achieves an astounding level of prophetic expression as can be seen from a view of the finished image (though I think it is important to acknowledge that the journey the video takes us on through the process of the piece’s composition is in itself a critical aspect of the experience the video is attempting to provide for the viewer):
possible interpretations:
When pigs fly we will see the unity of both American cities (San Francisco, New York, Washington, and Chicago are shown) and foreign nations coming together
or
One might note that the pristinely depicted symbols of American wealth and power are towering over and dominating the shabbier looking cliche facsimiles of international architecture and point out that this domination is carried out on the back of the agenda of those whom some might refer to as “capitalist pigs”–in this sense it is significant that the wings which lift this pig off the ground are actually human hands which are reaching out from the belly of the beast and trapped beneath the overbearing gravity of the concrete jungle growing out of the pig’s back.
Of course, as with all art, this is wide open to interpretations and this kind of art employs a multivalent communication of meaning which speaks truths on multiple levels at the same time.
Please hit the C O M M E N T link and put down your own take on the video, the image, and the message!
Hip Hop Prophets 