Kanye West music videos, from worst to best
Kanye West’s videos are remembered more for losing awards than the actual work itself. Which is a shame because the man has brought quite a series of memorable visuals throughout the past decade and change. And headline-stealing ones, too: this list was inspired after the release of “Fade,” featuring Teyana Taylor overwriting whatever memory people had of Flashdance, plus her and husband Iman Shumpert as half human, half feline. That impressive and surreal work didn’t even crack the top 10. There are far more creative endeavors in music videos from the man below…
*Not included in this list are… “Throw Some D’s (Remix),” Drake’s “Best I Ever Had,” the alternate versions of “Flashing Lights,” “Champion,” “Cold,” “Spaceship,” Runaway (the full-length film).
46. “Black Skinhead”
Kanye West/Nick Knight, 2013
‘Ye promised more after the leak, but his touch of innovation — Slow it down! Different angles!— was wildly disappointing, especially for a song which howled so fearsome when it first premiered.
45. “Jesus Walks” (Ver. 3)
Coodie & Chike/Kanye West, 2004
Lowest in both budget and ideas out of the “Jesus Walks” trilogy. Coodie & Chike has brought home-sweet-home warmth to Kanye’s songs, but this is more a middle-school film project.
44. “Lost in the World”
Ruth Hogben, 2012
This could’ve been something more. His collaborator offered to show the vastness of the world, I think, but went nowhere. Maybe it could’ve used some trees, but Hype Williams did that already for another Ye vid.
43. “All Day”
Steve McQueen, 2015
I just pretend that flamethrower-wielding, black-hoodie mobbed performance at the BRIT Awards is the music video. His grunt of an ad lib already told me he’s worn out from running anyway.
42. “Coldest Winter”
Nabil, 2010
The man himself missing from the video might play into it — an interesting choice given the song’s theme — but none of what’s seen here seems like materials unlikely to be found in Kanye’s mood board.
41. “Jesus Walks” (Ver. 2)
Chris Milk, 2004
Out of all the imagery and characters — which there are just too many to keep track— the one that sticks is Kanye behind a wall of flames.
40. “Wolves” (Balmain Campaign)
Steven Klein, 2016
Kanye, Kim and a trail of tears — maybe if this wasn’t a fashion line campaign, they’d play key to one sad video.
39. “Monster”
Jaka Nava, 2011
The banned-for-MTV video was one of the many of his realized dark fantasies. He has portrayed the naked body in wicked ways, but this one might be the least tasteful. Just like the track, Jay Z awkwardly passes by while Nicki Minaj makes her part completely her own.
38. “Diamonds from Sierra Leone”
Hype Williams, 2005
Hype is scattered to deliver his stance on political matters as his subject. Children of the diamonds no longer resemble humans while they try to send home the message, “think of the children.”
37. “Power”
Marco Brambila, 2010
Definitely a portrait of a time in place, specifically Kanye’s horus phase with him embodying the baroque. You get the point right away — “no one man should have all that power” — but he makes you admire the excess anyway.
36. “Amazing”
Hype Williams, 2009
While the nature-filled scenes starts off well, it gets repetitious for its own good. It also undermines Jeezy, whose voice alone is awe-inspiring.
35. “Niggas in Paris”
Kanye West, 2012
I didn’t attend the Watch the Throne tour, so I can’t speak on how well this reflects the shows, but man, my senses are fried. I wouldn’t argue with anyone if they say this is how they remembered the night.
34. “No Church in the Wild”
Romain Gavras, 2011
“Human beings in a mob — what’s a mob to a king?” practically asks for a treatment by Gavras, whose signature taste for violence follows controversy. This gets swept in the dust by his other works, but it gets the job done.
33. “FourFiveSeconds”
Inez and Vinooh, 2015
Rih, Ye and the Macca join forces for a hokey tribute to drunken nights, and it plays as a jingle for one fdope commercial for denim jackets. I got to say, though, a silhouette of Rihanna itself is an art piece.
32. “Mercy”
Nabil, 2012
All the video needed to really have was the Murcielago, so every little fancy post-production effect here is just bonus. The G.O.O.D. Music crew stunting like a boy band is the cherry on top.
31. “Famous”
Kanye West, 2016
His Truman Show-like take on fame was better as paranoia from 24-hour surveillance than a flip of the mirror as a literal gallery piece. I got the point, but I wish I learned that celebrities do, too, snore obnoxiously some other way.
30. “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” (Ver. 2)
Michael Blieden, 2007
Irony draws attention, as work by Galifianakis tends to do, but he’s also seriously committed to the act, enough to render the parody label sorta unfitting. Points lost for not actually showing a “room full of hoes,” though.
29. “Jesus Walks” (Ver. 1)
Michael Haussman, 2004
Blame “Ultralight Beam” but there’s nothing like a scene of a young Kanye at the church, leading a sermon, surrounded by the choir. Haussman focuses most on the man speaking and makes the best out of the three videos.
28. “Paranoid”
Nabil, 2009
In the timeline of Bad Girl RiRi, this B-movie horror homage was merely a screen test for her later, more transcendent role in “Bitch, Better Have My Money.” Even then, Rihanna was made for this.
27. “All of the Lights”
Hype Williams, 2011
Well, Hype liked Enter the Void a lot, though the most he takes away from the Gaspard Noe film is the title card. At least he highlights the firework sputter of the drums.
26. “Bound 2”
Nick Knight, 2013
‘Ye thinks a typical white wedding is a tacky joke, so he sends back a proposal that’s even tackier. He forces you to find preciousness in the most trashiest romance. It’s not perfect, but for him, this is love.
25. “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” (Ver. 1)
Hype Williams, 2007
Where would it be best for to capture Kanye beating himself up over wasting holy cash on jewels while asking God for forgiveness? The desert, of course: a perfect place to scream at the sun.
24. “Two Words”
Coodie and Chike, 2004
A intro credit roll-out treatment to an imaginary film seems the early planted seed of an art-house ‘Ye. A nice touch are the nod to homies by assigning them fake roles: John Legend on sound design?
23. “Heard ’Em Say” (Ver. 2)
Bill Plympton/Kanye West, 2005
This is the one people remember for the single. With Plympton’s graphite rendering, how could it not be? I envision the music black and white because of this. Perhaps the most memorable scene is the horrified faces from the hallucinatory depiction of the line, “the devil is alive, I can hear him breathing.”
22. “Welcome to Heartbreak”
Nabil, 2009
Interestingly, the man who later made a name from photorealism taps into a super-flat effect of a VHS tape corroding in real time. Retro as his star, self-destructing, too, but the piece stands more as technical exercise than a firm statement.
21. “Gold Digger”
Hype Williams, 2005
Magazine pin-ups might be the classiest reference Hype rented for a Kanye video. Though his push for “graphic design as lyric video” was perfected later by another, this ain’t a bad start.
20. “Flashing Lights”
Spike Jonze, 2008
I still don’t understand it deeper than the beauty of the surface elements: desert at dusk, a lone Mustang, a stern catwalk. The end and beginning of this film are clipped off, but it doesn’t matter once she grabs the shovel.
19. “Homecoming”
Hype Williams, 2008
“Welcome to my ‘hood” rap videos are my soft spots, a homecoming to the city, more so. “Everything I Am” in Graduation documented his relationship with Chicago more fondly, but tell me him staring at his own reflection at the Cloud Gate don’t hit you just a little.
18. “Fade”
Eli Russell Linnetz, 2016
Thank god “Fade” comes with a dance. That bass line, pulled from the great Larry Heard, commands movement, so bodies better get to moving. Thankfully, Teyana Taylor gladly accepts the challenge.
17. “Stronger”
Hype Williams, 2007
This video preceded the “No way is Akira better than Spirited Away” tweet by at least seven years. Hype’s pastiche is more realized here than his stab at Noe. Plus, it fits ‘Ye’s Japan obsession.
16. “Through the Wire”
Coodie and Chike, 2003
The Kanye West origin story, which starts from a horrific car crash and ends with coronation. Like the sound bites of “Last Call,” home videos of friends fill in between to pull my heart strings.
15. “Runaway” (Video Ver.)
Kanye West, 2010
The sharp shifts of the body to each stroke of the key, and especially the snare, show ballerinas aren’t a bad choice after all. Pusha’s “eugh” set to black tutus somehow feels more menacing than on paper.
14. “Heartless”
Hype Williams, 2008
Though fuzzy and flat enough for The Jetsons to reside, emptiness and loneliness of ‘Ye translate just right through an otherwise vibrant pop art — just like the half smile of a single.
13. “Good Life”
Jonas & Francois, 2007
All credit goes to So Me, whose iconic bubble letters turned the lavish imagination of ‘Ye into such fine pop art. My favorite goes to ‘Ye and T-Pain sharing a screen, transforming their faces into flat black and blues.
12. “Good Morning”
Takashi Murakami, 2008
Arrived too late when ‘Ye was already on the way into 808s & Heartbreak, but the iconic Graduation bear got its own life beyond the already-great album cover. A good send off of a mascot who ‘Ye sadly bid farewell.
11. “Heard ’Em Say” (Version 1)
Michel Gondry, 2005
Like Gondry’s other works, this less-remembered version is whimsically charming. The overnight-at-Macy’s story taps into more of the soon-to-be-tainted innocence of the piano riff. And it’s the most nuanced, heartwarming, and overall best show from the consciously conscious ‘Ye era too.
10. “Only One”
Spike Jonze, 2015
Sure, this home video needs some investment in the faith of Yeezus to fully appreciate, but this first introduction to North, Kanye’s first daughter and star, for us followers was a moment. Sorry, Saint.
9. “Slow Jamz”
Coodie and Chike, 2005
I experienced the single initially as an accompaniment to the house-party video, not the other way around. From the Michael Jackson joke to the “do it faster!” bit, the video integrated the jokes so well, giving them life outside of the record.
8. “Drive Slow (Remix)”
Hype Williams, 2006
Hype’s signature wide, neon-lit camera vision glows up ‘Ye’s tribute to candy paint and cruisers. It’s a movie about the thrills of joy riding, set to such a lurching, smoky score.
7. “Love Lockdown”
Simon Henwood, 2008
808s & Heartbreak, the album’s minimal thumps and its episodes of silent breakdowns, visualized all into a fine package. His Ikea-built home looks like a nightmare to live alone, and that’s the point.
6. “The New Workout Plan”
Director X/Kanye West, 2004
The old Kanye is shorthand for the “conscious rapper,” but let’s not forget the man was pitching stupid (and hilarious) jokes too. How people rejected “Jesus Walks” more than this, I don’t know. I mean, who in their right mind would allow this for a debut rap album?
5. “See You in My Nightmares” (We Were Once Fairytales)
Spike Jonze, 2009
Perhaps only Spike Jonze can make an incredibly drunk Kanye West calling attention to his own song playing in a club — “Ivn, this is my song!!” —funny and depressingly sad at the same time.
4. “New Slaves”
???, 2013
Kanye plastering his head shot in the size of monuments all across the world reciting the biggest fuck you to the gatekeepers of America — if that’s not the most Kanye move, I don’t know what is.
3. “Otis”
Spike Jonze, 2011
Their flex of wealth is the equivalent of a 7-year-old boy’s million-dollar fantasy: donuts on a Batmobile, blow shit up, record the whole chaos as a movie and look fly while doing all of that.
2. “All Falls Down”
Chris Milk, 2004
The clearing of eyes. The rapping in front of the mirror. The X-ray scan of ‘Ye. Common as a security guard. The mustard. Many guest artists were brought in to boost the iconography of his videos, but none can compare with the small-yet-timeless details left behind in this mini-movie by the “old” Kanye.
1. “Touch the Sky”
Chris Milk, 2005
According to Kanye West, history always wrongs Kanye West. “Touch the Sky,” then, was the correction to the error. While the song was his origin story, a telling of the days of advance checks spent on KFC dinners, the video rewrote his own myth. He boosted his rookie ambitions, one he thought was matched by no other, but he also hijacks the American myth to christen himself hero by becoming Evel Kanyevel.
Though the tongue-in-cheek humor, from pastiche to self-reference, presents itself right away, this is more serious than parody or tribute. As any of his videos, he posits himself larger than life. Here, he’s the American dream as well as the martyr for entertainment — the two archetypes of the Kanye West story, past and present. And what he considers the icons of success — the cheers, the trophies, the girlfriend — has not changed a bit, then and now.
Kanye and his favorite directors have borrowed many sources to tell this recurring theme and make his words come to life. They raised their ambition, grabbed from more artsy works, and expanded his personality. I don’t think any video has triangulated all of what makes the artist Kanye West so successfully as they did with “Touch the Sky.” The humor, the taste, the ambition —I guess the same wrongs truly help him write his songs.
