Kanye's Shower of 'Power'.

Power- it is energy, authority, force, and momentum. Divinity. For musician Kanye West, "Power", the latest installation to his growing movement of controversy, possesses every element of a dominating capacity. This video, or should I say painting is becoming a movement, the talk of the town. Quite indifferent, the properties within this artistic piece barely holds any actual "movement" to begin with. Visitors of NYC's 'Boom Boom Room' probably found the Power video to speak quite a similar volume to the enchanting 'Civilization' painting which rests abode the posh elevator inside of The Standard Hotel. 'Civilization' is an eye-catching, theatrical painting which cast a dreamy effect of heaven and hell upon it's viewers. It was ultimately created by Marco Brambilla, the same visual artist and director behind 'Power'.

We spent hours in hair and makeup and then all of sudden at 5 o'clock Kanye decided to change the whole direction and make the painting resemble Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel.

 Flocks of people support 'Power' while plenty hate it, and some even curse it stating that Kanye West has completely lost his mind through this peculiar portrayal of  his "demonic supremacy". 'Power' reminds me of one of those magical, mystical paintings that rest above a fireplace in someones million dollar home with a huge set of eyes that follow you around the room no matter which way you go. Full of mystery, this 'Power' piece could without a doubt live inside of the Clash of the Titans movie or a Harry Potter epic.

 If you haven't seen the video you can peep it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L53gjP-TtGE

Truly, this video is symbolic and controversial and for those of you who have studied ancient and Greek mythology, it is subliminally devoted to a strange celestial influence. My sentiment of "Power" was that it is timeless and visually enchanting but as a whole, spooky as all hell. His lyrics never got much attention from me so I would've never thought to prepare myself for a presentation of this nature for this song. Yet in terms of this song and related performances, I knew exactly what the video would give in observation to that semi-diabolic opening performance of his at this years BET awards. You can view my story on that here: http://www.triumphantdiscovery.com/2010/06/2010-bet-awards-spectacular.html

Well by the time Friday evening scurried along I was helping host a trendy little loft party in Soho. It was only a few hours after I had seen 'Power' for the first time and began writing the above segment. That night I ran into fashion model and friend, Mari Malek who eventually declared to me that she took part in the actual video production two months ago. She was more then happy to share with me her first hand insight of the video production, what it was like working with Kanye and her views on the 'Power' music video. Wine in hand, we projected our conversation atop of the 'Power'-ful house party jams.

Triumph: You guys saw the 'Power' video, right? Please tell me that you saw it.
Mari: Yea, lol. I was actually in the video. I was one of the flying goddesses.

Triumph: Oh wow, really? When did you shoot that?
Mari: Yea we shot it about two months ago. It was crazy.

Triumph: Did you cast for it?
Mari: Yea. Kanye pretty much booked us all based upon our own individual looks and uniqueness. It was nine models total. Including myself, Diandra Forrest and Jessica White.

Triumph: Oh wow, I would've never guessed that you and Jessica were in the video. I couldn't recognize any of the featured models. The only one I was able to recognize was the albino young lady, Diandra. How was it working with him? Was he cautious as to not allow any of you all outshine him?
Mari: No, not at all. He was so on-point and professional with everything. He was actually walking around pre-approving everything and everybody before we shot. He's a perfectionist, I had no problem working with him.

Triumph: Now in the midst of all of this controversy surrounding the video, are you happy you aren't one of the more 'recognizable' creatures?
Mari: Well, no not really because their were a lot of us- like I said nine total, and we had no idea how the final outcome would be. Nobody had no idea what was going on. When they booked us we were told that we would be portraying Egyptian goddesses. We spent hours in hair and makeup and then all of sudden at 5 o'clock Kanye decided to change the whole direction and make the painting resemble Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. And Kanye actually liked Diandra's hair the way it was when she came to set so he had her playing Hathor, she had on those horns as you can see. When the 5 O'clock switch came Jessica and I became the flying, possessed models but they still made Diandra keep on her horns.The other models were the goddesses of love or assassins.


Triumph: How do you feel about the way that you were portrayed? You know, with the implied nudity and all?
Mari: Well I am a model and at the end of the day we were meant to look however the client choose for us to look based upon whatever the concept was.

Triumph: How was it shot? You worked off of a green screen right?
Mari: Yea, we each shot our parts individually. Kanye was the creator, he represented power and so did the women. He was immortal, then he became mortal. That's why the man and the woman at the end were trying to kill him.

After a decent 20 minute conversation I decided I'd had enough information for a good story and tried changing the subject.
Triumph: So, how was you all's day? What did you do earlier?
Mari: *Laughs* Talked about this damn video, all day!
*Group laugh*

Peace, Power and Positivity!

Triumph