Over two years after Jaden Smith’s debut studio album SYRE was released, the artist has finally put out an official music video for the star track “Ninety". The video posted to YouTube received a trending spot and almost half a million viewers in the first day, with tons of positive, emotional, and thankful comments.
In the time since SYRE dropped, Jaden’s released a mixtape called “The Sunset Tapes: A Cool Tape Story,” as well as a second studio album titled ERYS, which showcases a different, darker version of himself.
Most fans, myself included, still hold SYRE at the top of their list and haven’t been as impressed with the newer projects as we were with SYRE. Evidently so, such fans were super excited when the singer/rapper posted to Instagram about the new video on its way.
“SYRE Didn’t Die He’s Just Good At Hiding,” Smith's post stated. The announcement discussed the obvious late fashion of this release and declared there would be mixed feelings from those who watch.
“Ninety,” was and still is one of my favorite Jaden Smith songs ever and may even fall at #1 on my list. Unlike other tracks, this one seems to truly tell a story, which is more than expected with it’s length being 7 minutes and 48 seconds.
The visual background of a pink and purple sunset throughout the video helps enhance the cinematic, storytelling qualities of the song, and goes along with the same themes of previous videos from the album.
The video begins with the following title “Ninety: A poem by Syre.” Not only are the lyrics of the tune written in a poetic fashion, but the video also includes subtitles throughout that add more context. The statements were as follows:
“This is a twisted love story”
“But I wasn’t enough”
“Too many mistakes to sift through”
“I’m sorry I started crying at your house”
“She killed him”
“We could have been never endless”
“I know”
“Sometimes love is about letting go”
“Again?”
“But he was happy”
“And I hope you are too”
While these lines helped to tell the story of course, I do think there could have been more done with the action in the video. Most scenes consisted of Jaden simply singing the song, while I feel that creating more of a short-film for “Ninety,” would have made it a lot better and unique to prior videos. While his talent and versatility compared to other artists shines bright in this release regardless, there could have easily been way more individualism and eccentricity added.
The cinematography is beautiful though, with the video being shot in widescreen, and containing amazing vivid colors and clear images. There are many different sets and the artist’s ex-girlfriend Odessa Adlon is even featured in a few scenes, which brings additional emotion and personality.
Overall, this music video is full of beauty and passion. It’s something any fan of the artist should check out and will most likely enjoy. While there could have been more growth shown and some improvements made, it was still a great release and I anticipate hearing and seeing more work from Jaden in the future.
I give this video 3.5 out of 5 Swoops.
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