Sam Fang
Iggy Azalea gets lethal and shows off her acting skills in the new music video for her single ‘Black Widow’ with Rita Ora. The music video, a homage to the epic Kill Bill, features Michael Madsen assuming a role very similar to the one he played in Kill Bill itself. Madsen opens the video with Rita Ora as the two head to a diner to be waited on by Iggy. Michael Madsen’s character is controlling and verbally abusive to his girlfriend, eventually making the owner of the diner come over to calm him down. As Iggy heads to the kitchen to prepare his sandwich, the back of her shirt reveals the diner sells Killer Burgers, and the song begins with the unsheathing of a sword (perhaps a Hattori Hanzō?)
The song, which is a decent track from Iggy’s The New Classic, begins with Rita singing as she and Iggy have teamed up in catsuits, ready to give Madsen’s character what he has coming. While I love The New Classic, and much of Iggy’s work before and after it, ‘Black Widow’ was not a standout track to me, and it feels more like Rita Ora should take headlining credit rather than Iggy. Granted, Iggy does rap throughout the song, but the more repetitive bit that will get stuck in your head belongs to Rita (probably because her lines are repeated throughout the song so much that Iggy’s part seems small in comparison despite her having more lyrics.) Despite it all, the video makes up for the song’s shortcomings.
Without ever copying Kill Bill too directly, the sleek video shows Azalea practicing her swordsmanship, while Ora, as the Black Widow, plays cards with a bunch of shady characters including Iggy’s friend and mentor T.I. She speeds off to meet Iggy at the club where they come together to find Madsen. Needless to say, he’s a little shocked at their entrance. Iggy draws her sword, but before she can reach him, cronies have arrived to take her down.
Rita then comes to Iggy’s rescue, and while the two put up a good fight, it’s not quite as epic as The Bride vs The Crazy 88, but that’s easily forgiven. As the Black Widows take down the henchmen, Madsen’s character flees – but he doesn’t get much of a head start. As Iggy and Rita approach him, he draws a gun but there’s no chance to fire it; a spider drops down as if by magic and bites him, and the video cuts back to the diner with Iggy furiously chopping lettuce.
Sure, it was all a fantasy, but the end result makes for a beautiful music video that makes an average run-of-the-mill song one you’ll remember.
Purchase Black Widow on iTunes
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