Music Video Textual Analysis: Skepta – Bad boy.

The urban grime artist ‘Skepta’ is a British Mc From Tottenham, London and managing director of grime label ‘Boy Better Know’. The single ‘Bad boy’ was released in 2010 from his album ‘Doin’ It Again’. I believe that this song is popular for its glorification of the new-age male archetype, As he portrays himself as a ‘Bad boy/ Rude boy/ playa’ who disregards the feelings of his female counterpart and goes out partying, For the younger generation, this is what some of the boys aspire to be, as they find it ‘kool’.

The video begins, and within the establishing shot we are able to see skepta’s back with a large tattoo reading ‘SKEPTA’ and to his left we can see a pretty woman who is very well dressed (Throughout the video we see the woman wearing the colour black, this may be connoting her feeling of sadness and neglect), serving him breakfast on a ‘sliver platter’, This implies that he always get what he wants, derived from the saying “served on a silver platter”, The fact that Skepta’s back is the first thing that is shown to us may signify that he thinks he’s too important and the fact that his own name is across his back reinforces to us that he thinks extremely highly of himself.

Skepta takes the platter but places it aside and carries on with what he was previously doing, whilst this is happening, the woman, whom we assume by now to be his girlfriend is on the other side of the bed looking quite rejected as he plays on his phone, this tells us that he is more interested in other things rather than her, we see the shot end with a close-up on her face revealing her ‘hurt; expression.
The next shot captures a traditional couples scene, in which the man is getting ready to go out somewhere and the woman is watching him adoringly whilst helping to do up his tie, throughout this, he is wearing a slightly nonchalant expression and when he is finished, she leans in for a kiss on the lips, only to be greeted by a friendly kiss on the cheek, implying that she thinks more of their relationship than he does.

The next few shots are cut between Skepta at a party, looking well dressed with a shirt, trousers tie and sunglasses, the sunglasses and Gucci tie/belt, almost exaggerate that he’s a ‘star. with all of his friends and associates and his girlfriends looks of disbelief, another shot is also introduced, in which Skepta is dressed very casually and rapping the lyrics directly to the camera, he is wearing blue which shows off his sense of calm and self assurance.

We then see her looking at herself in the mirror with a contemplative expression, she may be having self doubt or not feeling adequate enough, she then pulls out a series of different dresses which she put against herself, and ends up choosing another black one, we then see a slow motion/panning shot of all the people at the party having a good time, this contrasts to the girl at home not having such a great time.

Next, Skepta’s girlfriend is wearing a new black dress and chopping peppers to make dinner, once dinner is made, she is sitting all alone drinking a glass of rosé wine waiting for her boyfriend to come home; We can see that the woman here is playing a very stereotypical role, she’s cooking, cleaning, and pining over her boyfriend who is having far too much fun out with his friends to come home, another thing which connotes femininity is the fact that she is drinking rosé, when men are having a hard time or are upset, we usually see them opting for a stronger drink such as whiskey or vodka, but to make the woman seem weaker, she is given wine to drink.
Nearing the end of the video the audience learns that Skepta is actually out celebrating his birthday, as one of the girls in the party brings him a cake with sparklers on it, whilst his girlfriend is at home with a cake blowing out the candle by herself because she gives up on waiting for him to come home.

As Skepta takes a seat in the party, we are introduced to some other well known ‘stars’ in the London urban music scene, such as Tinie Tempah And Jme, A girl in a orange dress who looks quite different from his girlfriend at home starts to flirt with him and he reciprocates, Although just as we think something between the two may go further, Skepta gets a text message on his phone, which the audience do not get to read, and kisses the ‘new girl’ on the cheek and then makes his way home to find his girlfriend asleep on the couch, he sees the birthday cake and a ring, as his girlfriend wake up, she seems happy to see him and looks at him lovingly.

She told me that I talk nonsense
she said I never boost her confidence
she came home wearing a brand new dress
but I never gave her a compliment
no emotion no attention
she wants me to pop the question
but I never said a word
not even a mention

(Chorus) that´s why they call me a bad boy
they call me a bad boy
they call me a bad (x4)
they call me a bad boy

I know she knows I know she aint the one
she calls me every name under the sun
Wasteman lazy she´s mad; she´s crazy
she aint the girl that you wanna lie to
but like a fool one day I still try to
like I never forgot your birthday
I was just trying to surprise you
she told me that I talk nonsense
she said I never boost her confidence
she came home wearing a brand new dress
but I never gave her a compliment
no emotion no attention
she wants me to pop the question
but I never said a word
not even a mention
(Chorus)
I know you´re buff I know you´re pretty
but listen up honey I´m not Billy
you´re too deep in love
you need to jump out the water like free willy
cos all you do is just moan and complain
it was all good when your friend came
but any time my friends wanna come around
you start going insane in the membrane
she told me that I talk nonsense
she said I never boost her confidence
she came home wearing a brand new dress
but I never gave her a compliment
no emotion no attention
she wants me to pop the question
but I never said a word
not even a mention
(Chorus)




Overall, I believe that the narrative and visuals compliment the lyrics very well and all marry together to make a great music video.