The rise of lyrics videos has been fascinating to watch, as they give music fans an intermediary between a single’s release and its eventual music video, allowing artists and their labels to stretch the lifespans of their songs further than they ever could before. The format’s also been a godsend for fans of wordy rap artists who use it to promote their new singles.
A perfect example: Eminem and JID‘s “Fuel” lyrics video, which helps fans parse the two tongue twisting MCs’ bars while delighting with imagery borrowed from old-school arcade games and comic books. With the lyrics appearing on-screen as comic-style exposition boxes and sound effects blasts (think the 1966 Batman TV series with Adam West) as the rappers’ 16-bit avatars navigate a gritty urban landscape straight out of a 1980s beat-’em-up. The video even gets a little meta, with JID visiting an arcade to play a game within a game — which is another convention of video games, if you think about it.
The video arrives four months after the release of Eminem’s new album, Death Of Slim Shady, which was recently nominated for a Best Rap Album Grammy as the latest in a recent run of rap concept albums that highlighted the possibilities of the genre. Meanwhile, JID has been teasing a pair of new albums, including one with producer Metro Boomin.
You can watch the lyrics video for Eminem’s “Fuel” featuring JID above.