Kendrick Lamar’s “King Kunta” visual has been one of 2015’s most discussed music videos in Hip Hop. Its influence from West Coast videos past is prevalent but recreated to make something new.
Complex recently spoke with the video’s director, Director X about certain scenes from it. One detail that is prevalent from start to end is the video’s aspect ratio. X explained why they went with an atypical ratio.
“It’s a new age man,” he said. “Instagram and all that, we’re in a new age of aspect ratios and you’ve gotta embrace that. So we played with aspect ratios, new filters, everything. So we wanted to play to that this time around. It’s exciting to me to see people sharing clips of the video on social media and it’s in that aspect ratio. [It was my idea] to shoot in that format. That’s something I’m definitely going to be playing around with on all of my videos going forward.”
Director X also explained who some of the people in the video are including the girls in the backseat of Kendrick’s car as well as most of the people in the background.
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“The guys are all friends,” he explained. “The girls [in the backseat were] cast, but with the neighborhood in mind. It’s a hood video. We wanted girls who looked like they belong, girls that look good but not straight-up models, real girls. And as you saw those girls are definitely thick, definitely have a few moves.”
Kendrick Lamar released his To Pimp A Butterfly album last month. Read the full Director X piece here.
View the “King Kunta” video below:
