Sauce! For The Screen
How an animator gave new life to the XXXtentación single
Animated hip hop music videos aren’t exactly a new development. Kanye West first popularized them with his innovative video for “Heartless,” released more than a decade ago in 2008.
Nevertheless, animated interpretations of music continue to break new ground, and the newly released video for XXXtentación’s “Sauce!” is exemplary of that. The song was one of 24 tracks on the rapper’s Members Only, Vol. 4 album released in January, more than six months after XXX’s untimely death. Through the masterful artistry of animator Tristan Zammit, the track has been given new visual life.
The video depicts XXX’s likeness, with his signature top knot hairstyle colored blue, in a variety of animated styles, seamlessly evolving from one into another. At one moment he could be a character removed from a popular anime; the next, he appears as a round-faced Cartoon Network-esque personification. At other moments, the drawn personification of XXX appears in a more conceptual style, made of only roughly sketched lines. Lyrics written in bold, vibrantly colored typeface intermittently burst across the screen, adding another layer of comic book-like style to the video.
The video and song both flow smoothly, a testament to the unquestionable touch of talent the problematic rapper had during his short life. Zammit’s tribute to XXX’s musicianship through animation is an exciting addition to the realm of animated music videos and a respectable nod to the immortality of good music.
