Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 06/19/2012 at 12:27 PM Videos

The Popdust Files: 2 Chainz, drake, music videos, no lie

Let’s stop for a minute and marvel at somebody once named Tity Boi becoming arguably the most ubiquitous up-and-coming rapper in 2012–without even hiding the name completely, let alone his “family-friendly” ambitions. (It’s on his Twitter, for one.)

Photo: courtesy of 2 Chainz via Vevo and YouTube

"Drats! I said 'family-friendly'!"

Now let’s stop and… well, we can’t exactly say “marvel,” but perhaps “observe” will work. Let’s stop and observe the clip for “No Lie,” featuring Drake, from 2 Chainz’ upcoming album. It’s your standard black-and-white clip, with paint dripping down walls and women, with masks and headgear and mirrors in slo-mo, and with 2 Chainz and Drake hanging out amid the ambience doing not much of anything.

Photo: courtesy of 2 Chainz via Vevo and YouTube

This is the guy who got into a brawl with Chris Brown and possibly won.

Photo: courtesy of 2 Chainz via Vevo and YouTube

This is a woman in vinyl.

Photo: courtesy of 2 Chainz via Vevo and YouTube

Nobody has confirmed whether any women in vinyl were involved in the Drake/Chris Brown fight.

The most surprising thing here is that it’s by Director X, whose credits (as Marc Hogan points out at SPIN) include Drake’s “HYFR,” one of the year’s most inventive videos. Maybe it’d muddle the messages too much to juxtapose kids dancing playfully with models dancing Playboy-fully. Maybe he needed a titillating breather. (A heavy-breather, you might say.) Maybe we’re just sick of these self-consciously arty fifty-shades-of-greyscale videos. Maybe you could watch Adorn after this?