Kanye West’s music video, ‘Stronger’, explores life in a sleek, space-age robot world set in Japan. The video features appearances by singer Cassie and Daft Punk, the latter of whom Kanye West sampled for the song. There are several references to the 1988 anime film Akira.
Click on the image below to play the Stronger music video.
‘Stronger’ is the second single from Kanye West’s 2006 album, Graduation, released by Hip Hop Since 1978/Roc-A-Fella/Island Def Jam.
West wears a rare pair of Jeremy Scott sunglasses (designed for Linda Farrow Vintage), which he found in Paris after three months of searching.
Stronger Credits
The Stronger music video was directed and produced by Hype Williams, Naaila Entertainment, via G.O.O.D. Pictures, (Getting Out Our Dreams) with director of photography John Perez, editor Peter Johnson, executive producer Susan Linss, post supervisor Amelia Torabi.
The video was filmed over nine days in Japan, including shots in Aoyama-based clothing store A Bathing Ape and Harajuku clothing store Billionaire Boys Club/Ice Cream.
Williams was nominated for best director at the MTV Video Music Awards 2007, for his work on Stronger. Kanye West was also nominated for Male Artist Of The Year, Quadruple Threat Of The Year, Video Of The Year and Best Editing.
Post production and visual effects were done at RhinoFX by VFX Supervisor Vico Sharabani, CG Director/Project Lead Natasha Saenko, modelers Brian DiNoto, Bogdan Mihajlovic, compositing artists Chris DiFiore, Nitant Karnik, Rodrigo De La Parra, Lighters Ivan Guerrero, Jasmine Katatikarn, Aditi Kapoor, Digital Artist Neo Afan, animators Walter Lubinski, Ian Brauner, Inferno Artists John Budion, Niklaus Schlumpf, Julie Mai, Inferno Assistant Barry Furlano, Roto/Smoke Animation Sal Randazzo, executive producer Yfat Neev, senior VP production Camille Geier and Managing Director/Partner Rick Wagonheim.
Rhinofx VFX Supervisor Vico Sharabani said that the process of this project was totally unconventional.
“Kanye approached the creation of this video the same way he writes a song. He wanted to put different elements together and according to how they relate to each-other he would then take the next step. This made for a very creative environment with a quickly-evolving vision. Originally, there were supposed to be just four machine shots, but when we showed them the style frame we created for the machine, Kanye decided to re-edit the video around the machine, adding a dozen more shots. Kanye is a very talented visual artist and his passion translates to the way he manages the process. The whole process was very intimate and fast paced, with ideas flying around 24/7. It was a truly amazing creative collaboration between Kanye, Hype, our team, and editorial; everyone contributed to every aspect of the job. It was also very rewarding to hear of the video nomination for the MTV music awards.”
hey dude i love this song and i really want it.
dude thats a nime kcalled akira i seen the movie