Music Video Breakdown: ‘Money’ Adds Depth to JID's Catalog

The touching, poignant, and tragic music video for the song “Money” by Atlanta and Dreamville rapper JID was released on Sept. 29. JID’s latest album “The Forever Story” was released on Aug. 26 to critical and commercial acclaim. This long-awaited follow up to his sophomore album “DiCaprio 2” has cemented his place as one of the current generation’s best rappers, in terms of both popularity and artistic merit. His new music video, directed by Chad Tennies and Mac Grant, has only added to this project's success.

The video opens with a sitcom-esque title card as the song’s wistful choral lines grow into the song’s full beat. This leads the listener into the video’s nostalgic, melancholic and innocent mood, centering on the childlike exploration of its two main characters.

The use of smash cuts and panning shots effectively cut together tne adventures in the lives of two brothers whose loving and affectionate relationship shines as the emotional center of the piece. They are shown exploring the world, scrounging up dollar bills and coins from vending machines and wishing fountains to pay for visits to the arcade and ice cream shop.

This emotional layer is meaningful on its own, but hidden beneath the rose-colored nostalgia of the brothers’ relationship is the harsh reality of their mother’s neglect. We see the older boy bathe his younger brother and feed him bologna sandwiches as JID references the same food in the lyrics, ending with the insightful line “ironic being broke is an expensive lifestyle.”

The music then cuts out as JID says “No wonder they selling dope from sun rose to sundown,” foreshadowing the heart-wrenching final scene of the video. The video then returns to innocent childhood fun, once again creating a charming homage to childhood movies with goofy freeze frames of joyful moments, centering the complex beauty of childhood that JID is commenting on.

But as the music fades out the inherent pain that is imbued into this video returns. The last chorus is replaced by siren wails and crickets as the older boy fails to wake his mother up. The camera pans out to a body being carted off in an ambulance as the two boys talk to a social service agent.

The “Money” music video layers meaning on top of the song's nostalgic mood and underlying focus on parental neglect and drug abuse, creating an emotionally affecting and beautiful narrative that makes the already poignant song even more captivating.