By Matt Elias
Our set visit for 88-Keys and Kanye West's "Stay Up (Viagra)" is the coolest video shoot we've been on a long time. There were no massive entourages, no nitpicking handlers and no clichéd hip-hop crutches, like cars and champagne bottles. Instead, the video was right out of the Spike Jonze playbook (à la the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage”).
I use the term "set" loosely, because director Jason Goldwatch — a self-professed fan of Spike Jonze — had 88 and 'Ye running all over Hollywood. It was a real run-'n-gun-style shoot. Actually, for the rappers, it was more of a limp or a hobble — they were dressed completely as two old men, with full prosthetic makeup. The makeup was so convincing that barely anyone recognized the guys out on the streets. That's thanks to the makeup team behind Tony Gardner, a guy whose work you'd recognize from "Jackass: The Movie" (in which Jonze himself gets done up like an old man) and the Geico Caveman commercials.
See photos and video of the dynamic duo in action after the jump!
But while tourists and Hollywood riff-raff weren't recognizing the artists, all attention was on the two models that were arm in arm with the geezers. See, the video depicts Kanye and his good buddy 88 as two old men out on a crazy night on the town, all thanks to that powerful blue little pill.
The best part about the video was that the guys stayed in character the entire time, even during our interview. Going by the names Rufus (West) and Clifford (88-Keys), the guys had their shtick down so well that everyone in the crew was in stitches. They took the dirty old man scenario to a whole other level, and they seriously need to take that act out on the road.