Why Jennifer Lopez Wanted to Objectify Men With This Hip-Hop Music Video
Jennifer Lopez has worked with several rappers in the past, some she even felt were cute, to produce hit hip-hop songs. But later in her career, Lopez decided to flip the script in the once male-dominated rap genre.
Jennifer Lopez put a twist on traditional hip-hop videos
Lopez was a major fan of rap music growing up — so much so that she could pinpoint when her fascination with the genre began.
“I was in the schoolyard and I remember getting really excited. It was a defining moment. I’d never heard anything like it. I’d never heard rap like that, to that type of music. I just fell in love with it, and became sort of a fanatic,” Lopez once told Billboard.
Because of this, Lopez has also put her own stamp on the genre. After becoming a music artist herself, Lopez worked with several notable rappers like LL Cool J, Jadakiss, and Styles P. Her body has even inspired some of the genre’s most classic records. But in 2014, she challenged the rap industry’s traditional image with the music video for “I Luh Ya Papi.” The 2014 song was the first single off her album, A.K.A, featuring rapper French Montana. The music video’s director, Jessy Terrero, felt that the video should be similar to hip-hop videos of the past.
“Like the old classic hip-hop videos. He actually told me to be like the rapper and said, ‘You should be surrounded by all these guys and they are all surrounded by girls and babies, too.’ It made all of us smile to think about it, and of course, made us laugh. I told him, ‘Let’s just go for it,’ and he was thinking of all the classic shots,” Lopez recalled in an interview with Vibe.
It was an intentional reversal of music videos that objectified women. This time, Lopez would be the one objectifying men.
“And that’s what we were trying to do. Poke fun, but at the same time make a beautiful video. But poke fun at how women have been treated in these music videos. And, why can’t we do that? We’re in a moment of women empowerment,” she added.
Jennifer Lopez remixed her famous green Versace dress for ‘I Luh Ya Papi’
Lopez’s “I Luh Ya Papi” featured a callback to her famous green Versace dress. The artist famously wore the iconic gown when she attended the February 2000 Grammys with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs. She donned a remixed version of it in the music video, which was also a commentary on what rappers used to wear in their projects back in the day. For Lopez, there was no better opportunity to bring the outfit back.
“Well, you know, when you think about those types of videos with those rappers and the mansions and the yachts, they always have these Versace shirts on — and it was shot in Miami — we had to have some Versace in the video,” she told Pop Crush. “And so I sent them out to get those types of clothes, with those patterns and everything on it, and they came back with the jungle print, which is the green dress that I wore at the Grammys a few years back. I was like, ‘Oh my God, we have to do this.’ That’ll take everybody right back to those videos, too, from that ‘Jenny From the Block’ era, so we thought it was perfect for that.”
