Music Video Analysis: Nas & Damian Marley - Patience

Nas and Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley assume the throne in the video Directed by NABIL, the intense visuals see the poetic artist traveling to ancient lands, with Damian Marley shrouded by a hooded cloak and Nas rocking a crown on the dome. The 3d layers build up a well told story of africa, life and existance and the connection between the earth and humans. This music video is very deep and there are many different meanings and connections behind the narrative. This includes the mainstream media trying to manipulate society, how man has destroyed and ruined everything it has touched, and they question whether science can be proven right.


The song and music video sync well together because of the slow, low tempo instrumental, conplements the slow zoom shots in this. This gives a very strong sense of calmness. Nas and Damian Marley are almost portrayed as ancient gods in this video; they are dressed in robes, with crowns and other jewellery.

Damian Marley sitting on a throne looking 'god like'

Every shot blends in very smoothly; they use a number of different techniques to do this. One of them is the 'smoke effect' where they blend in two shots by vanishing the first one with smoke. This is shown here:

Shot one becomes engulfed in smoke

Completely covered in smoke

Transitions to the next scene

 The 3d layers are very effective in this music video; they give the video more depth as there are many different things going on at the same time. They use an african them throughout and this includes animals such as tigers and lions, statues and buildings like piramids and other ancient buildings. Another transition I quite like is when the camera focuses down and continues to shoot almost like it is doing filming under them and form this it switches to the next scene.

Shot 1 shown here

Camera moves down as banner breaks up the two different shots

Banner continues to move up as the camera moves down and reveals the next shot

This video has given me a lot of new ideas for what to include in my music video in terms of transitions and special effects. I am also thinking about the possibility of using a greenscreen for my backgrounds.

This music video tries to express the struggle of africa, to very deep, spiritual meanings, to the meaning of life. This video would appeal to the audience because these topics are quite complex and so is the video; there is so much going on at one time. I think the best effect used is the one shown here:

'Scholars teach in Universities and claim that they're smart and cunning
Tell them find a cure when we sneeze and that's when their nose start running'

Here we have Nas and Damian Marley walking on the 'flat earth' after the lyrics: 'Scholars teach in Universities and claim that they're smart and cunning, Tell them find a cure when we sneeze and that's when their nose start running' This shot is very artistic; it looks like a work of art. From the planets in the background to the african woman on the left hand side, I think this shot looks amazing. In this shot the earth is literally flat; hence why there is water falling off the side of this.

Overall, this music video depicts a very complex and deep song with a variety of different special effects and transitions to match the theme; without really going too over the top as the special effects are quite relative to the actual song and are not just thrown in there which will appeal to the audience a lot more.