The Carters – Apeshit
2018 · Directed by Ricky Saiz
2.8M Likes
Best comments
1.“Next video by The Carters will be shot on Mars.”
More comments
- 2.“The dislikes are from the people who wanted to visit the Louvre that day.”
- 3.“If the Carters ever want to adopt a 32-year-old, I'm ready and available.”
The story
Beyoncé and Jay-Z sprang Everything Is Love on the world at the end of a London concert in June 2018, their first album together as The Carters. Apeshit was its only single, and the video premiered at their London Stadium show on the On the Run II tour.
Director Ricky Saiz got them the Louvre. The couple stand in front of the Mona Lisa like it's a family portrait. Jay-Z studies The Raft of the Medusa. Beyoncé leads a line of dancers moving in sync beneath David's Coronation of Napoleon, some of the moves echoing the paintings. The Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Great Sphinx of Tanis and Marie-Guillemine Benoist's Portrait of a Black Woman all get their close-ups. Two Black superstars holding court in a former royal palace stuffed with European masterpieces. That's the point.
It was shot in May 2018 in Paris and Los Angeles. Pharrell produced the trap beat, Quavo and Offset threw in ad-libs, and the song peaked at 13 on the Hot 100. The video pulled eight MTV VMA nominations, won two (cinematography and art direction) and earned a Grammy nod for Best Music Video. The Louvre leaned in with a self-guided tour of 17 works from the video. Hyperallergic grumbled that it stuck to the museum's greatest hits. Fair. But in 2018 the Louvre topped 10 million visitors for the first time, and its under-30 crowd jumped more than 50 percent. Compared to what?
