The archive · Content & Film · Marketing decision · 2022
Nas's 'Ugly' video splices archival New York footage against black-and-white shots of Nas
Nas's 'Ugly' video is built from archival New York footage spliced with new shots of the rapper in black and white, a nod to street photography.
Nas
What it had to solve
The video for Grammy-winning rapper Nas's 'Ugly' was made as a black-and-white piece nodding to New York street photography, using archival footage rather than a built set.
How it works
For Grammy-winning rapper Nas, the music video for 'Ugly' needed a visual world that matched the rawness of the record. The choice was not a constructed set but New York itself, seen through the tradition of street photography.
The video runs in black and white and is built by splicing archival footage with shots of Nas. The city's recorded past and the artist's filmed present are cut together so every image keeps the piece anchored in what really happened.
The result is poetic and abstract, yet grounded: the archive holds the video in reality while the editing gives it rhythm and distance. D&AD keeps the video in its awards archive, filed among its Editing entries, and the page records no view or sales figures.
Why it lands
- Archival footage brings a reality no set can fake, so the abstract feel never floats free of the city.
- Black and white unifies the mixed material — old footage and new performance — into one photographic language.
- Splicing Nas into the archive makes the artist part of the city's continuing record rather than a visitor to a backdrop.
- The device needs no period recreation or location budget: the city's own archive supplies the world.
What it did
D&AD keeps the video in its awards archive, filed among its Editing entries; the page records no reach figures, so the case stands on the editorial concept.
What you can take
For a song about real streets, do not build a fake world: splice the artist into the city's own archive, and the footage's reality does the storytelling.
Since then
D&AD keeps the 'Ugly' video in its awards archive and the page records no follow-up figures, so the case stands on the editorial device: when the subject is a real city and a raw lyric, use the city's own recorded images instead of staging new ones. The transferable move is to treat the archive as a cast — footage that already exists can carry reality, history and mood that a built set cannot.
Sources
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card