Anthony Mandler, the director for Drake‘s music videos for Over and Find Your Love talks about the latter video.
“It’s unbelievable the amount of attention that he garners,” Mandler told MTV News. “Since the video dropped, I think I’ve received 200 e-mails, Facebook questions, tweets. There’s a fascination with him and there’s certainly been a void in music that he’s come to fill.”
According to Mandler, Drake’s allure lies in his ability to fit in across various groups. That idea was at the heart of the two clips he’s helmed for Drake, “Over” and “Find Your Love.” For their collaboration, he explained, the two played against the convention of who Drake may or may not be.
“I think part of that is the kind of way he works across genres, the way he works across tonalities: Is he black, is he white, he’s aligned with Wayne and the streets, but he’s a nice guy from Toronto,” Mandler said. “And that really was the theme with ‘Over.’ Especially with the album and the dualities in the music to come, in one song he rhymes and another song he sings, the artists he’s working with — he’s very hard to pin down.
“Part of the objective of making this video was to do that same twist again, to give you something unexpected, not only tonality with the song but with the video thematically. It’s kind of like the anti-love love story.”
In the video, Drake is advised to get out of dodge when he tries to woo the love interest of a local gang lord. He ignores the words of the elder Jamaican sage and instead ventures into the ghettos of “Gully Side” to see his leading lady once more. As Drake and the man speak, words run across the screen warning of the perils of unknowingly taking things too far.
“It’s really about crossing lines, what was said in the first scene,” Mandler said about Drake’s chase for love. “It’s about really understanding what’s right and what’s wrong and it’s really easy to lose that when you’re the center of attention.”
The director said the idea of “Find Your Love” was to serve as a follow-up to “Over,” which he felt helped to clear the slate of everything pre-Thank Me Later, Drake’s forthcoming debut album. The video was to feature visuals that begin a new story in the young rapper’s life. Mandler applauded Drake’s efforts in making the clip happen.
“He did it fearlessly,” Mandler beamed. “He did it without any sign of hesitation. That was incredible. He wanted to do something that went further with the song, that took the essence of the song but communicated it with imagery that made people think, rather than go up the middle and make an obvious R&B video. That’s completely not who Drake is.”
Via MTV
