Analysis of Afrika Shox by Leftfield

This video shows a half naked black male walking the streets of an urban city, presumably New York city (as if he has just come off a slave ship). During the course of the video we see the Protagonist reaching out to citizens that walk past him, the most notable of these is a middle aged middle class white man reading a newspaper. He shifts his gaze away form the black man who seems to be begging for help. another White middle class man unnoticeably walks into the black man's arm which breaks off, suggesting the black man is not entirely human but is a zombie. We are then shown a low angle of the white man who seems disinterested in the black man's pain and bewilderment. This could be an impression that we get of the western societies attitude towards Africa.

There are many Genre characteristics present in this video for example; The urban setting indicates the urban nature of the genre, the flashing lights the techno/dance generic roots, the underground location also connoting the roots of the genre. overall the mood is dark and represents New York negatively.

The video also utilizes the combination of both lyrics and visuals to emphasize the undertone of the video, for example; The black man walks up to the metal fence showing him behind the wire which would suggest separation from the protagonist and society itself, the lyrics being said at this time are 'Let's get electrified' which also links to electrified fences often designed to keep a balance of two things either side of the fence preventing them from crossing.

Later on in the video we see a group of white break dancers underground, which could suggest that the roots of Rock'n'roll, which originated from Africa have colonised by the break dancers, therefore showing the break dancers have colonised the black music. We then see the protagonist fall to the ground and is left on his back without both hands and one of his legs as another black man approaches him and asks 'Do you need a hand?' which shows the Irony that this man was asking him if he needed help, and pointing out that this man has literally lost his hands.

One of the many Inter textual references this video has is that of Ridley Scott's 1982 film: Blade Runner. In this film, Harrison Ford plays a 'Blade Runner' a special division of the police set up to locate and assassinate 'Replicants' which are machines that look like humans. the inter textual reference would be the 'outcast' feeling, that they are not accepted, in this music video we are led to believe the black man is the outcast, whereas in 'Blade Runner' the Replicants are the outcasts but in this extract from the ending of Blade runner we see that in fact the replicants might not the outcasts but rather Harrison Ford's character could be, which could also apply to this music video suggesting that the western society is the outcast.