Here, we count down our favourite videos of 2014 – the genius, the hilarious and the downright confusing.
Get watching:
10. STITCHES – BRICK IN YO FACE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtW6HW8jO_U
Stitches took the rap scene by surprise earlier this year, brandishing an AK-47 and stitches (duh) porudly tattooed on his face. The video that shot him into the spotlight is ‘Brick In Yo Face’, a black-and-white affair with so much flying cocaine that it has to be a piss take. Still, it has us intrigued.
9. BODY COUNT – TALK SHIT, GET SHOT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sokdL-0iV9s
Ice-T returns with his metal outfit Body Count on the ultra-violent ‘Talk Shit, Get Shot’. The opening skit is like something straight out of Chappelle’s Show, while the remainder of the video features enough gunfire and bloodshed to fill and action flick.
8. TKAY MAIDZA – SWITCH LANES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-AiWZOkpHA
Australian rapper Tkay Maidza gets animated into a wide-eyed character for ‘Switch Lanes’ – she twirls through an emoji-filled vortex of burgers, watermelons and pizza slices in the intensely trippy affair. Brimming with youthful imagination and cute, colourful characters, ‘Switch Lanes’ is our summer anthem.
7. DIZZEE RASCAL – PAGANS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n2cyZt5IDE
Part comedy and part kung-fu flick, ‘Pagans’ is Dizzee Rascal’s latest video that follows him from a martial arts training camp and into the city to avenge a warrior’s death. Filled with karate kicks, swords and superpowers, it’s tacky in the best way possible.
6. ACTION BRONSON – EASY RIDER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58RSC7HO9aU
Have you ever wanted to watch Action Bronson play a guitar solo on a mountain during sunset? Of course you have. ‘Easy Rider’ offers this and much more, including a bikie brawl, a police chase, and other antics which solidify his place as rap music’s most entertaining character.
5. FKA TWIGS – VIDEO GIRL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jhTiLuGezI
While the opulent visuals for FKA Twigs’ ‘Two Weeks‘ is also worth a mention, ‘Video Girl’ is mesmerisingly creepy and downright uncomfortable to watch. Taking place in a prison, FKA Twigs watches on as a man undergoes the lethal injection before twirling and contorting on his corpse.
4. DIE ANTWOORD – UGLY BOY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMK0prafzw0
Cramming in cameos from Cara Delevingne, Marilyn Manson, Jack Black & more, notorious weirdos Die Antwoord also manage to showcase gothic characters, clowns and metallic gold tracksuits in the thrilling ‘Ugly Boy’. Bring on Future Music Festival, we’re excited.
3. SIA – CHANDELIER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vjPBrBU-TM
Featuring insanely talented dancer Maddie Ziegler, the video for ‘Chandelier’ elevates Sia’s pop anthem to soaring new heights. When the hook kicks in with the snap-neck choreography and wildly flailing limbs, we get a true sense of power.
2. NICKI MINAJ – ANACONDA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDZX4ooRsWs
Before Kim Kardashian’s oily photo shoot for Paper Magazine, Nicki Minaj’s ‘Anaconda’ broke the internet convincingly with it’s nonstop barrage of booty. It’s still the year’s most polarising video, but Nicki’s preference for the risque shouldn’t come as a surprise by now.
1. FLYING LOTUS – NEVER CATCH ME FT. KENDRICK LAMAR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXD0vv-ds8
Flying Lotus explores the limits of life and death in his surreal clip for ‘Never Catch Me’, featuring a dance-off that starts at a funeral and ends in a hearse. Still, the video is nothing short of vivacious – it’s a contrast of action and environment that all blends together magnificently.
