Lee Bey: The Urban Observer

I'm almost two years late on this, but hey--if its new to me, then its new...

I've been getting a kick out of watching this Jonas Brothers video which makes pretty good use of Anish Kapoor's Cloudgate. The song they're singing, "Mandy," I could take or leave, but I do understand I'm not the age demographic being targeted here. The video also features two of the Jonases playing a security guard and a most unauthentic-looking Chicago cop who chase the band up and down Michigan Avenue and Wabash.

Nice vid, but it's Chicago as backdrop. For the real Chicago...

...my pick is South Side native's Common's 2005 video for "The Corner." Directed by fellow son of the South Side, Kanye West, the video is cinematic in scope and approach, showing us the graystones on King Drive, the New Regal Theater, Hilliard Homes, the EL passing over the Dan Ryan Expressway and a glimpse of the old Seville Motel sign near 90th and Stony Island. There is also some very well-done aerial photography of downtown landmarks.

Architecture aside: If you like rap/spoken word, you can't help but smile at the sight of true pioneers The Last Poets (!) huddled around a garbage can spitting rhymes after more than four decades in the business (and reminding the unschooled that there was rap long before the Sugar Hill Gang.)