The video is a nod to the African American community reminding all of us that some black people were kings and queens in ancient times not just slaves or poor as most history books like to portray. So it does make sense. Now, the phone thing was & still is amusing. I remember joking about it with my family when we watched the premiere of the video. Obviously, Michael wanted some humor included in this video
This is one of my most favorite videos as it took me a long time to get into this song but I always felt the video sold the song.
Here, here. :yes: you so rightfully pointed out
Love.him indeed royalty was not a feature that eluded African people. I haven't studied ancient Egyptian history as some of you - i've only seen a couple or maybe more docus on Discovery and History channels, so that don't count for much -, BUT if i'm not mistaken there were a few generations of pharaohs that came from the Southern part of the kingdom which is in current Sudan. The queen of Sheba and her son Menelik are only examples of black royalty.
We all know how fascinated Michael was with king Tut (maybe that's where he got the idea of the vid from, who knows?), but I think even more interesting is his father's story, Akhenaten and the revolution he tried to bring about. But, as
Asedora said, this is not the right thread in which to discuss that.
Returning to the vid though - i love it so, so much. It's actually quite special for me cause it's the second video I ever saw of Michael, after Smooth criminal. I remember it like it was yesterday - for some funny reason his hair appeared in quite a bluish tone (it was either the settings on the tv or the tape on which it had been recorded), but i thought that was so strange and cute - here was this beautiful, gorgeous man all dressed in gold, dancing his bum off and with blue wavy hair LOL. Loved it back then, love it now even if nowadays i see it on tv (often enough), but with the black hair lol. I looove the golden morph effect in the beginning and it amazes me to think that it was done back then, it seems so advanced technologically, as all of Michael's videos.
Love the coreography as well. Fatima Robinson I think had her big break with it and went on to work for boybands such as Backstreet Boys. I actually used to know part of routine back in the day.
As so many of you pointed out, in many music videos (Michael's included) there need not be a connection between the plot/images of the video and the lyrics of the song. If that were the case, where would that leave Scream? lol - yet another masterpiece that stood the test of time beautifully, but then again I love all of Mark Romanek's work, he is a brilliant director.
Back to RTT - the vid is worth a treasure for this killer smile alone. ^_^
