Review: Chris Brown employs creative storytelling for “Iffy” video

Review: Chris Brown employs creative storytelling for “Iffy” video

American Singer-songwriter Chris Brown recently released the music video for his single “Iffy” and there is so much to say about it.

Directed by Award winning South-Korean filmmaker Joseph Khan, “Iffy” employs creative storytelling to awe viewers.

“Iffy” Music video review

Review based on:
■Direction
■Relatability
■Storytelling
■Setting
■Sync

1) Direction

“Iffy” was actually well-directed. The choreography and lip syncing are on point, and the synergy between Chris Brown and the other performers left nothing left to be desired.

However, there may be some shortcomings. “Iffy” is a song about distrust; how Chris Brown finds it hard to “….trust these hoes cause they iffy…”.

But throughout Iffy music video, this idea is not distributed.

There seems to be an amount of gap in understanding as to how he can’t trust them. We see a heist in the beginning, but even the betrayal is not as expressive as it should be.

In music videos, show and tell is the unspoken standard, but even the showing and telling here is not expressive enough to emphasize the theme of the story.

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If there had been more scenes that showed betrayal, viewers would have “felt” something at the end of “Iffy” music video.

If anything, all we feel is a rush of thrill at the “transfomers-like” robot and the car stunts in “Iffy”. We don’t get to feel the lyrics in the video, and this defeats the purpose of the theme to an extent.

“Iffy” is definitely not soul music, but there must have been an expectation that viewers should feel an amount of sympathy and like-mindedness like the singer, but this is entirely missing.

Apart from this, the direction of “iffy” is on point.

2) Relatability

“Iffy” is a very relatable music video that makes you feel like you are a watching an intriguing trailer of one of your favorite movies.

The car stunts are not supposed to look unique, but we have to admit that it beats some Fast and Furious parody.

The fact that it just drops in our face while we don’t expect it, makes us feel “Oh…damn”. Which is how it’s supposed to make viewers feel.

The transformers idea is not a bad thing too, it employs an element of surprise for even Chris Brown and passes this astounding moment to us.

3) Storytelling

One of the noteworthy things about “Iffy” is how the story does not drag long or try to picture it as though the video were actually telling a story.

The storytelling makes “Iffy” very addictive. We actually follow through even when we don’t want it. This is mind-blowing because “Iffy” takes away our choice of consent to follow the story and makes us stay glued to get interested enough as to how it all ends.

Although “Iffy” ended on an inconclusive note, it doesn’t take much from the video because we feel the storytelling is enough to cover for this flaw.

4) Setting

Kudos to Joseph Khan on the setting of “Iffy”. It’s nice that we are not stuck in a single setting because “Iffy” cannot thrive in such setting.

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It would have been boring. Although it would have helped if one or two more settings were added, we can still take the number of setting we have so it doesn’t take us away from the storyline.

5) Sync.

The performance in “Iffy” was just the needed ingredient to make the music video a thrilling watch. We are surprised to see Chris Brown do some stunts and participate in some cool Choreography.

It gets to a point in music videos when the artiste just lip syncs and allows the choreographers do all the work. It may seem lazy sometimes. And the aim of this may be that the focus should be on the singer.

However, what people don’t know is that the focus is somewhat lost on the choreographers without the participation of the singer. But with Chris Brown’s involvement, we are interested in the Choreography and the sync is exalted.

■Direction: 1.4/2
■Relatability: 1.5/2
■Storytelling: 1.6/2
■Setting:1.3/2
■Sync:1.7/2

☆Total: 7.5/10

Chris Brown “Iffy” lyrics

Pinky ring worth ’bout two-fifty (ooh, ayy)
Two-tone my Lambo, that’s drippy (ooh, ayy)
Bottle after bottle, now she tipsy (ooh)
Can’t trust these hoes ’cause they iffy (ooh, ayy)
I know that your best friend gon’ slide now (ooh, ayy)
Party at my house, that’s a vibe now (ooh, ayy)
Ballin’ on these hoes like LeBron now (ooh)
She spittin’ off the top, that’s a freestyle

Ooh, yeah
Pinky ring worth ’bout two-fifty (two-fifty, oh, ayy)
Two-tone my Lambo, that’s drippy (yeah-yeah, I did that, ooh, ayy)
Bottle after bottle, now she tipsy (tipsy, yeah)
Can’t trust these hoes ’cause they iffy (ooh, ayy)
I know that your best friend gon’ slide now (I know, ooh, ayy)
Party at my house, that’s a vibe now (vibe, ooh, ayy)
Ballin’ on these hoes like LeBron now (ooh)
She spittin’ off the top, that’s a freestyle (freestyle)

Songwriters: Andre Young / Chris Brown / Curtis Jackson / Darius Logan / David Samuel / Dominique Logan / Edwin Perez / Jamal Gaines / Joshua Parker / Lumidee Cedeno / Michael Jimenez / Mike Elizondo / Patrizio Pigliapoco / Steven Marsden / Teddy Mendez

Iffy lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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