Video premiere: Lana Del Rey as Jackie O. and A$AP Rocky as JFK in "National Anthem"
by Samuel Tolzmann on June 27, 2012
Posted in: Uncategorized
The “gangster Nancy Sinatra” strikes again! Oh, Lana Del Rey. Can you believe she once charted here at WRMC? Where to begin with her… the name change or the makeover? The SNL debacle? The really great singles (“Video Games” 4ever) and the really bad album that followed? The apparent replacement of her personality with what amounted to a Tumblr blog’s mixture of 2010s MTV glamor and faded Americana kitsch? Yeah, let’s start with that last one — and, hey, how timely: check out the video for “National Anthem,” probably the most offensive song on Born To Die. If you haven’t heard it, the lyrics go, “Money is the reason we exist, everybody knows it’s a fact, kiss kiss…I need someone to hold me, he will do very well,” and no, that’s not feminism you smell, it’s the vodka tonic Lizzy, I mean Lana, spilled on her neckline…could you wipe it up for her, sir? This atrocity stars LDR as, ahem, Jackie O AND Marilyn Monroe. Obviously she needs a JFK to have not one but two romances with, and luckily rapper A$AP Rocky was in the Hamptons that day. This might be some kind of far-fetched political/racial/cultural commentary, but since this is the same woman who turned the opening sentence of Lolita into the hook of a song about gambling, I’m guessing it’s just an excuse to wear period-appropriate jewelry. Sex, drugs, cinematic string arrangements, multiple shots of LDR gazing despondently from behind rosebushes, and — of course — assassination ensue. Unintentionally funny, intentionally sad, or just really, grossly inappropriate? You decide!!!! Watch the video below, if you can deal with all eight minutes. A$AP Rocky called it “trippy…some real 2015 shit” and said we’ll all understand it in three years. So, until then…God bless America?
PS. I’m also wondering if this means A$AP Rocky can tell the future…?? If so, that would be pretty exciting. This could mean something even bigger than Lana Del Rey’s bump-it!
