Question about Outkast's "Hey ya" video

[Themis00]

What’s the significance of the casket?

[twit]

@Themis00

What’s the significance of the casket?

It might be a symbol of the death of a relationship. I believe I read that Andre had a relationship with Erykah Badu, with which he has a child, a son named Seven. But that relationship ended, so perhaps the song is about that breakup.

[GIGObuster]

I missed that! Had to find the meaning of that casket:

Outkast's 'Hey Ya!' Clip Ran Andre 3000 Into The Ground: VMA Lens Recap

"I had that song about a year ago and one day I was sitting in the car with Dre and I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we did a video with a spin on the Beatles’ first appearance on ‘Ed Sullivan?’ " Barber said. “With the way the song is arranged, with all these different levels and characters, it is something we could pull off and it would be totally different from what anyone would expect Outkast to do.”

Dre had never seen the Beatles footage, so the excitement of watching it more than half a dozen times with Barber gave him the idea for a fresh spin on the clip. “Dre was really into it. But he never wants to repeat anything,” Barber said. “So he said, ‘Let’s not do Sullivan. Let’s make it seem like the Americans invaded England.’ That’s why the Love Below Band is performing on an English show in the video, but eliciting the same kind of wild response the Beatles did when they first played Sullivan’s program in February of 1964.”

[snip]

Barber, 29, was reluctant to divulge the secret of how he was able to combine all the performances together seamlessly. The only thing he would say was that it was an old Hollywood trick using a special “motion control” camera that allows a director to lock the camera off and shoot people in the same frame, then edit them together afterwards.

If he’s not going to reveal his secrets, Barber could at least explain why a coffin full of flowers is sitting in the middle of the stage on an otherwise shiny, happy set, right?

“We originally had a totally different song and different idea for the video that involved a casket,” Barber explained. "But we decided we should keep the casket anyway, since the name of the album is The Love Below, which kind of ties in. The album is about a guy searching for love: his love of music, women, his mother, and we wanted to bring the casket in to play up the theme of this guy wondering, ‘Is love dead? And can we revive it?’ "

Barber said the concept (and the coffin) will tie into the other videos the pair plan to film for the album, including a clip for “She Lives in My Lap,” which was to be Dre’s first single. That video, featuring Rosario Dawson, will now come out next year and coincide with a musical Outkast are shooting for HBO based on the Speakerboxxx/The Love Below album

When I was looking for better quality streams of the video, I found a slightly different version:

A more subdued British “host” wearing a hat (!) and behaving like a very British Ed Sullivan, appears in the black and white monitor announcing Ice cold and “The Love”:
http://hiphoppass.net/sr/home.dpx?id=Nzg2

The presentation by the British host is longer that the lively one in the regular video; before, and after that peculiar spot, the video is the same. Odd.

[GuanoLad]

Barber, 29, was reluctant to divulge the secret of how he was able to combine all the performances together seamlessly. The only thing he would say was that it was an old Hollywood trick using a special “motion control” camera that allows a director to lock the camera off and shoot people in the same frame, then edit them together afterwards.

Hmm. But that is the secret. There’s nothing much more to tell that isn’t too technical for most people to need to know.

It seems to me that they took some of their inspiration not so much from the Beatles actual appearance on Ed Sullivan, but as the way it was portrayed in the movie I Wanna Hold Your Hand.

[FriarTed]

I hate to say it but it took me several viewings of the video to fully realize Andre is all of them.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

Maybe this is common knowledge but I haven’t seen it mentioned before here at the Dope. The video is a tribute to the Beatles in more ways than one.

Paul McCartney’s 1980 video for “Coming Up” used Paul to make up a whole band:

http://www.jpgr.co.uk/r6035.html

Recorded on 26th/27th March 1980, film-maker Keef McMillan used a new computerised desk to have Paul appear as ten people AT THE SAME TIME, a band that Paul cleverly dubbed “The Plastic Macs”. Paul imitated the looks of, Buddy Holly, Frank Zappa, Ron Mael, Andy Mackay, Ginger Baker (looking more like “Animal” of The Muppets !) and even a 1964 Beatle version of himself ! Linda also appeared in two guises making “The Plastic Macs” a 12-piece band.

And every Beatles fanatic knows about the casket on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s.

The guitar is resting on a casket, and three sticks atop the bass (to make three “strings” for the guitar) represent the three surviving Beatles.

[hansolo]

ive seen andre 3000 perform this life and he has the DJ set up in the coffin.

the box the turntables go in is called a coffin. so it made me smile that they used a real coffin

[Disheavel]

Is the connection between coffins and zombies too easy for a joke?
Outkast Fan, the thread you commented on is 6 years old. Generally discussion is limited to more recent threads. Feel free to stick around- although I have a feeling your spam is going to get you put in the coffin with the zombies.

[twickster]

This zombie was disinterred by a spammer; I shall now return it to its rest. Permanently.