Lil Wayne classifies his latest clip, which echoes ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,’ was meant to be ‘fun.’
Lil Wayne’s new “No Worries” video very clearly worships at the altar of Hunter S. Thompson, and his phantasmagorical ode to excess, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” (and, in no small part, Terry Gilliam’s loving 1998 film version of the book), following Weezy and his producer pal Detail on a surreal trip through Sin City that mirrors that of Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo.
But while Thompson’s work also used Vegas as a metaphor for the the worst of the American Dream — the vulgarity, the wanton disregard for our fellow man, the ravenous appetites for substances illicit and extreme — Wayne decided to use the city as his personal playground. And why not? At this point, he’s earned the right to do so.
“That was my main thing,” Wayne told MTV News’ Sway Calloway following the video’s premiere on “MTV First.” “I told all my friends, I told everybody ‘We don’t have no script, this video [we] don’t have a time to be there, we’re just going to shoot and have fun,’ and that’s what we did.”
So while there’s not a ton of substance to the clip — though it does look like everyone present had a blast making it — Wayne hopes fans of Thompson’s book (and Gilliam’s film) will enjoy his tribute … one that goes to great lengths to match the sheer Gonzitude of its source material. Or, at the very least, wish they were riding shotgun with him and Detail on a very wild ride through America’s most decadent city.
“Well, we did [the] ‘Lollipop’
in Vegas, and we did that for the simple reason where I think at that time I had never shot a video in Vegas,” Weezy explained. “We did this video in Vegas because the treatment played off the movie ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.’ We didn’t really follow any script or anything; I just saw the movie, really enjoyed the movie, and I told [director] Colin [Tilley] I was interested in the movie and he wrote a spoof to it, and we shot it.”
Are you feeling Weezy’s ode to ‘Fear and Loathing?’ Let us know in the comments below!