Analysis of Ja Rule ft R Kelly & Ashanti – Wonderful

This video was released on the 28^th of September 2004; this was of his 6^th studio album called “R.U.L .E”. Ja Rule is signed to Def Jam Records who are the subsidiary of Universal Music Group, and this video was directed by Hype Williams. This song generates from the genre of RnB, and has a narrative based story line, the main message it is putting across to it’s audience from a males perspective is “would you still want me if I wasn’t rich” and its questioning the relationship which both males (Ja Rule and R Kelly) are going through, trying to find the right woman. 

In the video the artists are being represented as them living the “gangster lifestyle”, this is through showing close ups of them smoking cigars and them being in flashy tailor made suits.  It creates the appearance of them being rich and able to afford that type of lifestyle. 

Throughout the video we see two dominate colours being portrayed in different ways with the artists and the video girls; the white and black. White is showing the purity of the ones who are wearing it whereas the ones in Black are shown to have two sides to their personality; hence why both males go through more than one girl, showing the journey of them finding the right one.We then see a long shot of Ashanti in white, standing in front of the sea with the sun setting behind her; this portrays her as being “angelic” and how she might be the “perfect” woman they’re after. Using the close up of R Kelly smoking the cigar brings an invitation for the audience to get to know him but that’s then push aside due to the fact that he’s wearing glasses which shows that he’s a mysterious character, and the smoke also acts as a barrier because its foggy and doesn’t allow you to see his face. There’s also a series of establishing shots displaying how they’re living in paradise, this will have an effect on its audience because it will make them want to aspire to this way of living because it’s being portrayed as something beautiful and worth having. 

Within mise-en-scene there’s an establishing shot of Ja Rule standing in a white bedroom with him and the video girl both in black, this could symbolise him indulging in pleasures that may satisfy him. A fade is used and a establishing shot is followed of him coming down the stairs meeting another girl in black, this then shows that he wasn’t satisfied, and the search for “Mrs Right” still continues. This search is then put to an end once he has found his perfect match, by displaying a close up of him and another video girl lying on a Yacht, both dressed in white and sailing of into the sunset, it creates the picture the “perfect” lifestyle once again, but this time with his special girl. This then gives the message of patients is a virtue when it comes to finding the right one, and it creates the illusion of this being an everyday lifestyle that an audience can aspire to live like.

Overall the use of representation, cinematography and mise-en-scene helps portray a picture of a wealthy lifestyle, and it helps the audience to understand even if they were wealthy, they’d still want someone to share it with but it’s just about finding the right one. The different representations we come across enables audience to connect wit the artist and sympathise for them, but then they feel happy to know that one of them ended up with what they were searching for.