RIOT - XXXtentacion

Riot by X is a song about how the world is changing and is going down the wrong direction and that we are divided amongst ourselves instead of being united, in addition, it has a lot of reference to ethnicity, prejudice, and discrimination.

The video starts out very dark since X and two other black people are hanging from a tree, with X wearing a gold chain, in addition to this scene, it transitions between different examples of black deaths as a result of discrimination such as Emmett Till and Rodney King and him swinging from the tree. The first bar start out 'You ever seen a nigga hung with a gold chain' this can have multiple interpretations; you can take it at face value since you will never see a black person hung with a gold chain or you could think that X is saying that since the 'gold chain' is a stereotypical representation of black 'gangsters' you would never see it around their necks in death since their possessions don't carry them towards the afterlife furthermore the gold chain could have connotations with status and wealth and the fact that being hung with it means that we carry our wealth with us into death but since it says 'you ever seen' means that its unrealistic you would see it.

 The next prevelant scene is of black men in ski masks with torches this is directly synonymous with the KKK in their white hoods with torches, X then says 'niggas ask for peace in riots then bring violence' he is calling out hypocrisy since black people demand respect from the police and the government yet they still out robbing stores and causing violence even though that may be stereotypical since thats what the media shows on tv and in the news, just how black people are behaving since me personally didnt see white people being on the news for rioting or violence probably because they aren't stereotypically 'oppressed' as an ethnicity.

Throughout the music video there are many scenes of black men being beaten savagely on the count of racism most likely to highlight how recently this stuff was happening and that it is still prevelant since it flashes between different examples with the dates included; in addition to this the music video is shot with much darker lighting to further enhance the lyrics being heard so that there are direct connotations between audio and visual, X also uses very simple shots like close ups and medium shots to see emotions in detail. Even though the song is quite fast paced and short there's the use of slow motion which is a contrast between audio and visual.

Overall the music video is very dark which coincides with the tone of the song.