The music video for “Father” — featuring an appearance by Travis Scott who comes in for his verse on the track, and set in a church minimalist in design but layered with goings-on worth a second look — is a single-camera scene directed by Bianca Censori.
Ye hasn’t said anything about its meaning, or anything about it at all, but his “Father” video plays out like a commentary on religion, reality and the ennui of modern society.
Here, a fellow’s card tricks turning to flames are as unremarkable as the knitting granny in an adjacent pew. A police squad, preceded by a plate-armoured knight arriving down the aisle via horse, arrests a nun from her slumber. Michael Jackson (his lookalike, at least) sits alone, quietly unbothered in the last row. The touchdown of a UFO seems inconsequential, with stars Ye and Scott pulling down masks showing they already play both celebrity and extraterrestrial.
All of the above goes largely unnoticed to churchgoers in “Father.”
All the while Ye’s chorus goes: “Bye-bye to my old self/ Wake up to the new me/ I used to be on Worldstar/ Now I’m making Newsweek/ I used to hang on the 9/ Now I bought two streets/ Cottage Grove to King Drive/ Yeah, this life is a movie.”
(Billboard)
