Ranking All 43 of Kanye West's Music Videos

You can trust Kanye West to make gripping, original music videos, with Spike Jonze, Hype Williams, or even himself behind the camera. In honor of his 41st birthday, we’re ranking all 43 of Kanye West’s music videos.

Kanye West's "Famous" visual
Image via Kanye West on YouTube
Kanye West's "Famous" visual

Dating back to his self-funded video for “Through The Wire,” which functioned as a visually dazzling scrapbook of his entire life up to that point, Kanye West has been just as ambitious with his visuals as with his impeccable albums. Even as his career paralleled the rise of YouTube and the end of labels spending millions on epic videos for MTV rotation, West continued to spare no expense, repeatedly doing things like flying to Prague to shoot “Diamonds From Sierra Leone” and creating the half hour short film “Runaway.”

West has often turned to some of the most acclaimed video directors of all time, including Spike Jonze, Hype Williams, and Michel Gondry, to help him make his magic. But he’s also self-directed a few of his most memorable clips, and formed fruitful collaborative relationships with other directors like Chris Milk and Nick Knight. He takes risks, too; he worked with buzzing newcomers like Nabil Elderkin and French duo Jonas & Francois on their way up. He even brought artists who didn’t traditionally make music videos, like Japanese pop art icon Takashi Murakami and fashion photographer Steven Klein, into a new realm.

In the same way that he samples records and takes inspiration from music outside of hip-hop, West’s videos are rich with references and influences from every visual medium. From the pin-up model aesthetic of “Gold Digger” to the rotoscope animation of “Heartless,” from the datamoshed pixels of “Welcome to Heartbreak” to the Enter the Void-style titles of “All of the Lights,” Kanye West has danced and rapped his way through an amazing variety of real and virtual environments. In honor of his 41st birthday, we're ranking all 43 of Kanye West’s music videos.

43. "FourFiveSeconds" (2015)

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Director: Inez and Vinoodh

Album: Single

“FourFiveSeconds” is a curious kind of anti-spectacle: three of the most famous musicians in the world uniting for short, taut acoustic song. It was released in early 2015, ostensibly to launch the campaigns for both Kanye West’s seventh solo album and Rihanna’s eighth, but it wound up on neither. And the video, even more than the song, doesn’t seem to be sure of what it wants to be. Rihanna and Ye both emote and gesticulate wildly in expensive jean jackets, while Macca coolly strums a guitar. But the stark lighting, blank backgrounds and black-and-white color palette just make it look like a ’90s Calvin Klein ad. 

42. "N****s in Paris" (2012)

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Director: Kanye West

Album: Watch the Throne


The dynamic duo decided to use live concert footage for the video, which was directed by Mr. West himself. Viewers are given a warning at the beginning of the video that it might cause an epiletic seizure so you know crazy things happen-mirrored images, jungle cats, strobe lighting effects, and lots of flashing.

41. "Amazing" (2009)

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Director: Hype Williams

Album: 808s & Heartbreak


Hawaii should use this video in all their tourist ads. Kanye is known for working out of his famed studio in the tropical state, so we're guessing that's why he paid homage to the beautiful islands in a series of aerial shots in the video for "Amazing." If watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall had you itching for a vacay, then one viewing of this video will have you ready to ditch work and pack your bags.

40. "Coldest Winter" (2009)

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Director: Nabil Elderkin

Album: 808s & Heartbreak


It's difficult to decipher what's going on in this video. It's mostly shots of a girl running through the woods, being chased by something before jumping off a cliff and into the the hands of dark forces. Like many videos from this era of his career, Kanye's not in the video but it doesn't matter: It's beautifully shot with a mood that matches the intensity of the record.

39. "Love Lockdown" (2008)

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Director: Simon Henwood

Album: 808s & Heartbreak


Either there's a war going on or it's all Kanye's head. Or both. This is the visual representation of how you feel after a break-up. The video mostly takes place in Kanye's real life apartment, one so nice and clean that you understand why Kanye said he doesn't play rap music in it. Yeezy mopes around the apartment and doesn't even look into the camera until two minutes in. Meanwhile, African tribes run amok and head into battle, reminiscent of the tribal drums on the beat. You might assume it's all abstract until you see 'Ye against wall as the camera begins to shake. Suddenly, his white blazer is looking like a straitjacket and you realize it's all in his head. American Psycho-inspired, obviously..

38. "Famous" (2016)

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Director: Kanye West

Album: The Life of Pablo

 

If the song “Famous” was a tabloid supernova that fueled a few more months of the very public conflict between Kanye West and Taylor Swift, then the song’s video was a brazen attempt to up the ante even further. It’s the apotheosis of Kanye’s obsessions with sex, celebrity, and shock value: for most of the 10-minute clip, a camera lingers over lifelike sculptures of naked bodies, lying asleep in bed together after some kind of wild orgy. Seen in the video are decoys of West, Swift, Chris Brown, Bill Cosby, Caitlyn Jenner, and others. The song also stops entirely for four minutes of breathing and snoring sounds. The video is especially surreal now, given West’s controversial embrace of President Trump.

37. "BLKKK SKKKN HEAD" (2013)

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Director: Nick Knight

Album: Yeezus

 

“Black Skinhead,” the most confrontational song on Kanye West’s most aggressive album, is even more charged with racial subtext when retitled “BLKKK SKKKN HEAD” for its video, which projects CGI images across what appear to be KKK hoods with white switched out for black. The musclebound animated version of West that lurches across the screen cops many of the same stage moves that the real man used when performing the song in numerous TV appearances, but the CGI Kanye never quite conquers the uncanny valley.

36. "No Church in the Wild" (2012)

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Director: Romain Gavras

Album: Watch the Throne


This modern day protest scene set in the Czech Republic is a statement piece. Director Romain Gavras plays up the civil unrest in the community as civilians and police officers fight to the death, neither easily giving up, despite the size of the battle. It plays perfectly to the song's message of mayhem and anarchy.

35. "Only One" (2015)

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Director: Spike Jonze

Album: Single

 

Spike Jonze has a long resume of bizarre, high concept films and music videos, including some of Kanye West’s flashiest clips. Performance artist Vanessa Beecroft has staged some incredibly complex art exhibits and photographs. But “Only One,” directed by Jonze from a concept by Beecroft, is perhaps the simplest, most unadorned video West has ever made. Kanye stands on a dirt road on a rainy day, singing along as the ballad dedicated to his mother, Donda, plays, and  holding North, then a toddler. The whole thing was captured on Jonze’s iPhone.

34. "Jesus Walks" (2004) (Verison 3)

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Director: Kanye West, Coodie Simmons, Chike Ozah

Album: The College Dropout


In the third installment of "Jesus Walks," Kanye takes the title literally as he himself is followed around Chicago by a Jesus Christ lookalike. The video was shot guerilla style, making it the least expensive of the three "Jesus Walks" visuals. Still, its impact is deeper than budget. The simple depiction of Kanye traveling his city, performing miracles for strangers has an odd, but endearing place in the context of this clip.

33. "Lost In the World" (2012)

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Director: Ruth Hogben

Album: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy


"Lost In the World" was directed by fashion film director Ruth Hogben. We get Kanye rapping on a mirrored floor and several women doing interpretive dances to the vibrating drums pounding in the background. It's a creative visual for a multi-dimensional song.

32. "Drive Slow" (2006)

Director: Hype Williams

Album: Late Registration


Neon lights, diamond grills and expensive cars makes this video a subtle home run. Kanye, Paul Wall, GLC, and T.I. took to the green screen for this vehicle-heavy record visually. All four artists are seen in different cars telling their tales, while passing the shiny lights of what appears to be Las Vegas.

31. "Heard 'Em Say" (2005) (Version 2)

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Director: Bill Plympton, Kanye West, Joe DeMaio

Album: Late Registration


The second video for "Heard 'Em Say" is an animated video co-directed by Bill Plympton, whose images Kanye has loved since his youth. Plympton was able to fully re-create the visuals that Kanye had in mind to convey the story of himself as a cab driver who picks up passengers, including a child and his mother, which is meant to represent Kanye as a child.

30. "All of the Lights" (2011)

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Director: Hype Williams

Album: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy


Yeezy and Hype Williams stick to the frenetic, seizure-inducing visuals for the "All of the Lights" video. We get an interpretation of the songs interlude by way of a young girl walking the winter streets home from school. The black and white imagry pairs well with the interludes strings, and both set the stage for the blaring contrast that awaits. Once the horns kick in, so do the colors, as another Kanye video trope kicks in—lyrics visualized.

After that, we're treated to Rihanna wearing a revealing electric tape top, Cudi performing, and Kanye rapping on top of a cop car. While the variance of images in this video may be limited, the cuts and colors aren't. If you can stomach Hype's itchy trigger finger, Rihanna's outfit (or lack there of) makes totally this flick worthy. Shouts to Gasper Noe's Enter the Void for the inspiration.

29. "Jesus Walks" (2004) (Verison 1)

Director: Michael Haussman

Album: The College Dropout


With a song like "Jesus Walks," there was no question that Kanye would have to produce a visual that helped illustrate the emotions the song manifested. And since Kanye is a man of many words and even more emotions, he created not one, but three music videos for this song because four minutes of imagery limits the ideas that he hoped fans would develop for the song.

This version brings us into a church service where Kanye is a rapping pastor, with an accompanying choir behind him as he spits. We then meet our three protagonists: a prostitue, gang member, and homeless man. Each with their own internal demons, they battle trying to start a new life as their old one hoovers on top of them. The three then find themselves being saved by "angels" and walk collectively into the church where West is giving the good word.

Director Michael Haussman appropriately inserts real footage of various riots and acts of violence that occured in the U.S. to help piece together the damaging society these characters are living in. At the end of the video the homeless man has offered his alcohol, the gang member his affiliated paraphenalia, and the prostitute her body-all at a chance of redemption.

28. "Welcome to Heartbreak" (2009)

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Director: Nabil Elderkin

Album: 808s & Heartbreak


Watching this video, we can't help but wonder if our video player is acting up because everything looks so damn pixelated. It turns out that no, our monitor isn't broken and the video was actually shot that way. The unorthodox animation is referred to by some as "datamoshing," and if you know anything about coding, it's definitely a pretty impressive and rarely seen effect.

27. "Wolves" (2016)

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Director: Steven Klein

Album: The Life of Pablo

 

“Wolves (Balmain Campaign)” is both a music video and a commercial for a major fashion house. Supermodels like Alessandra Ambrosio and Jourdan Dunn, as filmed by noted fashion photographer Steven Klein in the latest Balmain frocks, still manage to come off eerie in the presence of Kanye West, with tears in his eyes, performing the skeletal The Life of Pablo track.

26. "Can't Tell Me Nothing" (2007)

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Director: Hype Williams

Album: Graduation


"Laaaaaa, la, la, wait 'til I get my money right," and in drops the beat, and thus, drops you right into the middle of what appears to be the Utah salt flats, and there's Kanye, a dark presence in the middle of blinding brightness (a brilliant visual interpretation of the track's aesthetic). It's just him rapping as viewed through an epic crane shot, and nothing else. And sure, there are colored smoke bombs at night later, and a model in a flowing black cape-dress, and Kanye doing doughnuts in a gulfwing Benz, but it's the first half of this video that sears an image into your brain, of Kanye surrounded by nothing, doing whatever the fuck he'd like.

Rappers (let alone Hype Williams, who's directed the most blinged-out videos in rap, period) aren't known for brilliant minimalism. This video was Kanye's statement that he can master any and all aesthetics gracefully, and it was the beginning of his foray into more abstract ideas that diverged wildly from anything rap had been before it. In that, he has a classic.

25. "All Day/Feel Like That" (2015)

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Director: Kanye West

Album: Single

Kanye West often puts as much thought into the visual spectacle of his awards show performances as he does his music videos, but “All Day” was the first instance where the former actually became the latter. At the 2015 Brit Awards, West took the stage mobbed with dozens of black-clad friends, many of them U.K. grime artists like Stormzy and Novelist, while two massive flamethrowers blazed into the air above them. A couple weeks later, West uploaded the Brit Awards performance to his YouTube channel and declared it the official video for “All Day,” effectively shelving the video he’d already shot with 12 Years A Slave director Steve McQueen, which leaked a year later.

24. "Stronger" (2007)

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Director: Hype Williams

Album: Graduation


The period of time between Late Registration and Graduation was a strange one, in that no artist could've recieved the kind of heavy 'What will he do next?'-type expectations throw at Kanye. And when he did, in fact, release a song with one of the most important electorock songs ever as the primary sample, there was a question of audacity that the video was crucial in shutting down. There's the incredibly elusive Daft Punk, right there-right there in Kanye's video!-holding it down for 'Ye, a sampled co-sign if there ever was one.

The concept, of Kanye being re-engineered in some kind of space pod to be harder, better, faster, stronger, got the perfect and earthbound visual accompanyment in Tokyo-night aesthetics, and what might still be 'Ye's most memorable accessory: The cut-line shades. Then there's Cassie as the object of Yeezy's affection. You never doubt why this clip cost millions to make. The entire thing took everyone by surprise, but more importantly, right into the future of 'Ye's music.

23. "Good Morning" (2008)

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Director: Takashi Murakami

Album: Graduation


One of the few music videos to ever be shown in multiple museums, "Good Morning" actually toured alongside the Takashi Murakami store that saw the Museum of Contempory Art in L.A. and the Brooklyn Museum in New York open up pop-up Louis Vutton shops in-yes-museums, which is what happens when Kanye chooses an artist to work with (the same art-market hype exploded when George Condo did the cover for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy). Murakami's art is incredible from a still viewpoint, but when presented in the form of his few full-length cartoon features, it practically explodes off the screen.

But how would he animate 'Ye? He wouldn't: Kanye brought back his beloved Dropout Bear character for what would turn out to be the last time in this clip. It was the first and only fully animation we'd ever need to see of the iconic mascot.

22. "Slow Jamz" (2003)

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Director: Fat Cats

Album: The College Dropout


In this video for the ultimate kickback tune, Kanye, Twista, Jamie Foxx, and directors, the Fat Cats, play up the idea of having a house party with lots of ladies, Solo cups, and games of spades, while jamming to the oldies but goodies. If the girl wants some Marvin Gaye, some Luther Vandross, and a little Anita to set the party off, hit crates and get to playing.

21. "Two Words" (2009)

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Director: Coodie Simmons, Chike Ozah

Album: The College Dropout


Never one to miss an opportunity to deliver a message in his songs or videos, Kanye does it again for "Two Words." What appears to be the opening credits of a vintage civil rights documentary is the music video itself. We get Mos Def spitting on a park bench, Kanye rapping his ass off in front of a brick wall, and Freeway hanging in front of a corner store, manhandling his verse. The entire video is juxtaposed footage of old police riots along with current footage of the trio rapping. It all comes together nicely because it looks like all of the scenes were shot with the same cameras from the vintage footage. Nice touch.

20. "Gold Digger" (2005)

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Director: Hype Williams

Album: Late Registration


Kanye enlisted Hype Williams to create the visuals for "Gold Digger," which essentially lines up fictional magazine covers and pin-up girls who reflect what 'Ye is rapping about in the correlating verses. Between Kanye's neck-snapping dance moves, bold color choices, and Jamie Foxx's flawless rendition of Ray Charles' "I Got a Woman" sample (right after his role in Ray), the visuals for "Gold Digger" are a perfect match for the song.

19. "Bound 2" (2013)

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Director: Nick Knight

Album: Yeezus

 

In the context of the bombastic Yeezus, “Bound 2” was the disarmingly beautiful ray of sunshine that broke through the storm clouds. But the video’s idea of beauty was so over-the-top and clichéd that people didn’t know what to make of it: wide shots of mountain ranges, horses running in slow motion, and Kim Kardashian straddling a motorcycle with her soon-to-be husband. After a couple weeks of the world puzzling over the cheeseball visuals, West clarified to The Breakfast Club that he was, in fact, in on the joke: “I wanted to take white trash T-shirts and make it into a video. I wanted it to look as phony as possible.” But by that point, people had already decided the video was hilarious whether it was supposed to be or not, most notably with Seth Rogen and James Franco creating the parody video “Bound 3.”

18. "Power" (2010)

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Director: Marco Brambilla

Album: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy


By far one of Kanye's most artistic videos, he describes the video as a moving painting. The video was directed by collage and instillation artist Marco Brambilla and went in a very new direction for Kanye. The video lasts less than two-minutes and is said to be a hyper-sensational version of what the song is actually saying. The Greek mythology themes play to the idea of power. It's a uniquely communicated but, uh, powerful, way to get a point across.

17. "Homecoming" (2008)

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Director: Hype Williams

Album: Graduation


A lot of artists have at least one video that pays homage to the place that made them who they are. Hype Williams put together this awesome montage of Kanye revisiting his stomping grounds as both friends and early supporters of his music are seen following him around throughout Chicago. Featured singer Chris Martin is mostly seen as a sillohuette throughout the video, but his vocals help add passion to the song and video. Fellow Chi-Town rapper and labelmate Common also makes a quick appearance.

16. "Heartless" (2008)

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Director: Hype Williams

Album: 808s & Heartbreak


Even with all of his videos, this was Hype's first animated one. The clip pays tribute to the film American Pop and feature portraits of the Jetsons family as well as Andy Warhol's' famous Campbell's Soup cans. Thanks to the rotoscoped animation, the cartoons are surprisingly lifelike in their motions so it mimics Ye's gestures as he raps and make us kind of uncomfortable for being so attracted to the video girls. However, the video does feature one out of character moment for Ye: His cartoon puffs a cigarette.

15. "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" (2005)

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Director: Hype Williams

Album: Late Registration


Aside from "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" being one of the most recited choruses during the summer of 2005, Hype Williams helped Kanye deliver a thought-provoking visual for a once again controversial track. Kanye attacks the heart of the song dead on as he has children portraying the horrific ordeal of mining for diamonds while under the watchful eye of abusive supervision in Sierra Leone. Hype and Kanye make the message hit home when they juxtapose the footage of children mining with footage of a wealthy man proposing to his girlfriend with a diamond ring that, once placed on her finger, quickly turns into blood and becomes a gruesome scene.

After spitting verses in front of Prague's best architecture, Kanye runs his extraordinarily expensive car into a jewlery store at the end of the video in a last ditch effort to stick it to the man even further. The video ends with the simple message of "Please purchase conflict-free diamonds." We got it.

14. "Heard 'Em Say" (2005) (Version 1)

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Heard 'Em Say [Version 1] from Sir Popozion on Vimeo.

Director: Michael Gondry

AlbumLate Registration


Kanye released two videos for "Heard 'Em Say," both featuring Maroon 5's Adam Levine. In this one, the live-action video, Kanye plays a homeless man looking over three children who sneak into Macy's right around the Christmas season and stay overnight. Kanye shops a bit, while the kids play around the store, which come sto life. In one scene, the kids drive around on a bed, only to be confronted by Levine, who plays a security guard. The fantasy world of the department store perfectly embodies the nostalgic yet uplifting sounds of the track.

13. "Jesus Walks" (2004) (Verison 2)

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Director: Chris Milk

Album: The College Dropout


What's more controversial than a Ku Klux Klan member carrying a burning cross? Almost nothing. Together Kanye and director Chris Milk took the second version of "Jesus Walks" to another level by featuring a chain gang of prisoners, little girls double dutching, runaway drug dealers with a stripper in tow, and a distressed Klansman.

This go-around Kanye aimed to further illustrate how Jesus walks with everyone no matter their path in life. We follow convicted prisoners as they are put to hard labor in the sweltering sun while being abused by the wardens, presumably innocent and naive children, a disturbed Ku Klux Klan member who singlehandedly manufactures his own life size cross, and a hustler with enough cocaine in the trunk to make your favorite child star get the shakes. By the end, they all find a new sense of self-acceptance and revelation.

12. "Good Life" (2007)

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Director: Jonas & François, So-Me

Album: Graduation


The video for Kanye and T-Pain's "Good Life" is "simple." Both artists are shown on a white background with digital effects and artistic direction doing most of the work. The cartoon sketches and lyrics spelled out in bold colors marked a new direction for Kanye visuals. So-Me-a Parisian graphic designer and animator-originally released a video in the same style for Justice's "D.A.N.C.E." but Kanye's interpretation was more of an upgrade than a bite. Finally, a rap video where every line gets its due representation.

11. "Paranoid" (2009)

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Director: Nabil Elderkin

Album: 808s & Heartbreak


Over the years, Kanye has cast some truly beautiful women in his videos. For "Paranoid," he outdid himself and got Rihanna to star in the visual. Kanye only makes occasional appearances in the background. RiRi cruises in a drop-top while the lyrics to the song occasionally pop up in front of her in a way that we can only describe as "old school, second rate horror film." It all comes off like something Alfred Hitchcock would have done.

10. "Monster" (2011)

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Director: Jake Nava

Album: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy


"Monster" doesn't start with a warning so much as, in true Kanye style, a demand: "The following content is in no way to be interpreted as mysoginistic or negative towards any groups of people. It is an art piece and shall be taken as such." And, then, it opens with a model, hanging by the neck from a chain, followed by a shot of Rick Ross smoking a cigar in slow motion in a throne, not even rapping his verse. Then we see Kanye, shirt off, being grabbed by unseen models' hands from behind a cast-iron fence, when he's not posing two dead models in a bed with him, or trying to keep hordes of zombie women from getting at him, or holding a decapitated model's head.

And where's Ross going with that chainsaw, in the room with the models? Jay-Z raps his verse in a slick suit, just chilling, in front of a dead model, sunglasses on, and Nicki Minaj goes psycho-sexual vampire on...herself? The great accomplishment of "Monster" isn't that it's so edgy, in a day and edge where videos have all but entirely lost any artistic edge, it's that director Jake Nava managed to make a clip with four rappers in it, each of them registering scenes as memorable and impactful as their verses, a difficult task actually lived up to.

9. "Mercy" (2012)

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Director: Nabil Elderkin

Album: Cruel Summer


Kanye West and friends let Cruel Summer loose on the world with the video for "Mercy." The video, was shot in the parking lot garage of a mall in Doha, Qatar. Kanye, Big Sean, Pusha-T, Kid Cudi, Teyana Taylor, and 2 Chainz all make appearances, suspiciously disappearing, re-appearing, and morphing into one another. The minimalism of the visual is offset by the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 sitting stationary in the background, which is a pleasant reminder that the collective's wealth still exists despite a lack of flashy presence in this particular clip. When you try hard, that's when you die hard.

8. "The New Workout Plan" (2004)

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Director: Director X, Kanye West

Album: The College Dropout


The video "hoe-fessionals," as they call themselves, chit-chat all about their new come-ups in the intro to Kanye's "The New Workout Plan" video. In the fake infomercial, Kanye gives ladies the instructional, and comedic, directions to land themselves a baller significant other and become the ultimate trophy wife. Complete with obstacle courses, an Anna Nicole Smith cameo, and Fonzworth Bentley's remix clip, this video is a circus of fitness raps and visuals.

7. "Fade" (2016)

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Director: Eli Linnetz

Album: The Life of Pablo

 

In the days leading up to the 2016 VMAs, word on the street was that MTV had promised Kanye West four minutes of live airtime to do “whatever he wants,” a risky prospect given the things he’d done at that very event in prior years. Ultimately, he got 11 minutes— seven to deliver a rambling speech, and four to debut the video for The Life of Pablo single “Fade.” But it turned out to be one of those videos where West ceded the spotlight to someone else, in this case G.O.O.D. Music singer Teyana Taylor, whose acrobatic dance routine had the whole world Googling her.

6. "Touch the Sky" (2006)

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Director: Chris Milk

Album: Late Registration


Is a great video moment worth getting sued over? That's the question at hand with this one, as Kanye did in fact have to face down a lawsuit from none other than Evel Knievel. Kanye bears the great stuntman's likeness in a literal interpretation of touching the sky-he gets shot out of a rocket. In case there was any doubt as to who Kanye was channeling, he spells it out for you with his "Evel Kanyevel" on his trailer. We can't understand why the OG daredevil got bent out of shape over this. With Kanye stunting in the desert next to Pamela Anderson, dude should have taken it as an honor.

5. "Flashing Lights" (2007)

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Director: Spike Jonze, Kanye West

Album: Graduation


As you've noticed up to this point, Kanye has a ton of avant garde, off-beat videos. He's not necessarily rapping in any of them, and he's not necessarily present in the videos either. "Flashing Lights" is one of those videos, but it executes that style on the highest level. It's such a simple video in essence, but every detail pops. A car pulls up with looming red taillights, a woman with unreal proportions, Rita G, exits, disrobes, and proceeds to murder Kanye with a shovel.

It's so suspenseful and calculated and perfectly time. The first emotions you feel after a viewing are amusement and shock. Kanye tries to bring the worlds of rap, pop, and art together and the official, final visual for "Flashing Lights" accomplishes that on the highest level he's ever done it. When asked about the video, vixen Rita G said, "Kanye is just on another level." She knows what she's talking about.

4. "Through the Wire" (2003)

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Director: Coodie Simmons,Chike Ozah

Album: The College Dropout


Kanye's major solo debut to the world came in Polaroid snapshot form in the video for "Through The Wire." The idea was conceived after Kanye saw an adidas ad in Blackbook magazine back in 2003. It all starts off in Original Leon's in Chicago, but cuts to gritty personal footage of Kanye. The footage is of 'Ye in intensive care after a near-fatal car accident left him with his jaw wired shut gives an idenity to the song recorded only two weeks after the wreck.

The clips of Kanye performing on-stage, in the studio, and a montage of his production credits gave him the perfect introduction to the industry as a solo artist. There's home videos filtering throughout the visuals, including clips featuring his mother Donda West. The nostalgic sample of Chaka Khan makes the video more personal, and at the end, 'Ye personally thanks her with a kiss to the shot of her poster.

3. "All Falls Down" (2004)

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Director: Chris Milk

Album: The College Dropout


Kanye's "All Falls Down" takes him on a run through the Ontario International Airport following his girlfriend, played by Clueless' Stacey Dash. For a song that focuses on insecurities and society's fascination with material wealth, Kanye's first person visual perspective creates an ideal visual. You'll watch Dash ask him for cash, a little kid get mustard all over Ye's shirt, and reflections of the rapper in the tinted windows of his car.

While most of the video shows Kanye running in slow motion through the airport just to bring his girl to the gates, he ends up in the bathroom where he raps one of his best verses on the disllusionment with the American Dream. There's plenty of cameos in the 4-minute video including Common, Consequence, Kel Mitchell, Syleena Johnson, and GLC. But no cameo is better than Ye's jaw implant when he puts himself through the metal detector.

2. "Otis" (2011)

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Director: Spike Jonze

Album: Watch the Throne


This is easily one of the most entertaining videos either Kanye or Jay-Z has ever released. The two look like they're having the time of their lives, which you don't see everyday. Who else can destroy then customize a Maybach and then drag race it around an industrial lot. The video is primarily a performance piece with the two rappers (and Aziz Ansari, and a gang of models, briefly) goofing off and stunting for director Spike Jonze. We've never seen the Throne like we did in "Otis," and we likely never will again. It was a major moment, so much so that the car was later auctioned off. (The proceeds went to the East African Drought Disaster.)

1. "Runaway" (2010)

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Director: Kanye West

Album: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy


The plinking sounds of an out-of-tune piano summon a full ballet troupe in all four versions of Kanye's "Runaway" which include-a full-length film, a clean version, the video version which matches the length of the song, and the extended video version, which is double the length of the song. Phew. We see Kanye singing over a piano with the ballerinas all dressed in black dancing in an eerily quiet, yet jerky movements. Black Swan anyone? His muse, the phoenix better known as model Selita Ebanks, is taught by West, who goes by Griffin in the full-length movie, how to socialize with people yet when they attend a large dinner party, the guests don't understand her.

The music video becomes Ye's platform to respond to the criticisms but what's more haunting is the lyrics: "A toast to the douchebags." The video for "Runaway" creates a juxtaposition of both class, and slang, backed by the ballerinas that give of an eye into Kanye's world of refined pop culture, then one of luxury, sadness, and pain.

"Street Lights" (2009)


41. "Street Lights" (2009)

Director: Javier Longobardo
Album: 808s & Heartbreak

Reminiscent of a Grand Theft Auto joyride, this animated video has 'Ye in the driver's seat, crawling through a deserted metropolis, searching for a destination he fails to reach. The graphics take you back to the era of PlayStation, channeling all of the song's emotions into polygons. It's a tasteful touch.

Flashing Lights (2008) (Version 3)


37. "Flashing Lights" (2008) (Version 3)

Director: [Ed. Note—This video leaked. The director unknown. Kanye once blogged: "I shot 3 vids for 'Flashing Lights' cuz I ain't like the first 2."]
Album: Graduation

Kanye finds himself in the company of some pretty strange individuals for the third version of "Flashing Lights." In this version, 'Ye witnesses a murder in a creep-infested house while he's searching for a mysterious woman who lives there, as well. It's a peculiar setting, but it draws on the underlying dark themes of the song in a surreal way.

"I Wish You Would"/"Cold" (2012)


32. "Cold" (2012)

Director: Hype Williams
Album: Cruel Summer

Warning: This video may cause epileptic seizures-yup, another one. It's a bit hard to stay focused while you watch this video because of the blinding lights. Shot in a small black brick hallway, Mr. West delivers a passionate performance of one of his most infamous rap rants. We get cameos by DJ Khaled and the Kardashian princess 'Ye is so fond of these days.

Flashing Lights (2008) (Version 2)


24. "Flashing Lights" (2008) (Version 2)

Director: [Ed. Note—This video leaked. The director unknown. Kanye once blogged: "I shot 3 vids for 'Flashing Lights' cuz I ain't like the first 2."]
Album: Graduation

This video introduces us to a young woman who appears to have it all-she's attractive, can cook eggs, and has a social life. But it's the social scene that gets her in trouble. We see her leaving her apartment in a chaffeured car, but by the end of the video she's sitting on the train looking like she's lost everything she came with. The flashing lights of nightlife are overwhelming in the City.

"Champion" (2007)


23. "Champion" (2007)

Director: NEON
Album: Graduation

This song is meant to inspire the winner within us all so it's pretty awesome that we got a puppet version of Kanye West winning a foot race against humans. In the beginning of the video, we see a "K-Span" press conference where they make the controversial decision to let the puppet race and by the end of the video you're watching and cheering for the underdog to win.

"Spaceship" (2009)


15. "Spaceship" (2004)

Director: Kanye West
Album: The College Dropout

Kanye West's humble beginnings were the initial draw for the rapper's audience. He wasn't a trendsetting auteur; he was a regular guy with a day job who had much bigger dreams and ambitions, one who felt disrespected by the daily grind, and stuck in a dead-end job. The video for "Spaceship" found 'Ye, GLC and Consequence living out a job at the mall, frustrated by the work and minor indignities of paycheck-to-paycheck living. It also captured the thick feeling of suspicion and distrust, most ominously represented by authoritarian surveillence in the modern workplace.

"Can't Tell Me Nothing" (2007)


5. "Can't Tell Me Nothing" (2007)

Director: Hype Williams
Album: Graduation

"Laaaaaa, la, la, wait 'til I get my money right," and in drops the beat, and thus, drops you right into the middle of what appears to be the Utah salt flats, and there's Kanye, a dark presence in the middle of blinding brightness (a brilliant visual interpretation of the track's aesthetic). It's just him rapping as viewed through an epic crane shot, and nothing else. And sure, there are colored smoke bombs at night later, and a model in a flowing black cape-dress, and Kanye doing doughnuts in a gulfwing Benz, but it's the first half of this video that sears an image into your brain, of Kanye surrounded by nothing, doing whatever the fuck he'd like.

Rappers (let alone Hype Williams, who's directed the most blinged-out videos in rap, period) aren't known for brilliant minimalism. This video was Kanye's statement that he can master any and all aesthetics gracefully, and it was the beginning of his foray into more abstract ideas that diverged wildly from anything rap had been before it. In that, he has a classic.

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