Not so fast, Kanye fans. Yesterday Spike Jonze admitted to ArtsBeat the reason you won’t find the pair’s collaborative video “We Were Once a Fairytale” floating around the internets after last weekend’s reveal. Here’s a hint: it involves Apple.
The “14-minute phantasmagoria,” an experimental short film meant to evoke what Jonze describes as “trying to get to that raw place, that sad, pathetic, drunken, lost place,” was inadvertently released on Kanye’s blog on October 18. Let’s just hope the millions of viewers who watched “We Were Once a Fairytale” for free were riveted enough to consider purchasing the video via iTunes, with whom the duo had negotiated an exclusive distribution deal. Doh.
Despite the gaffe, Jonze does his best to convince ArtsBeat of his bro love for Kanye: “I like Kanye and I care about him. This video is a side of him. Who knows? I don’t know what the reception is going to be, but I love making stuff with him. I love the guy.”
In countdown to the official, for-sale release on Tuesday the 27th, may we suggest hitting refresh what Pitchfork once referred to as the “pulpy sex’n’violence shocker” “Flashing Lights,” the video Jonze directed for West’s 2007 album Graduation. Though personally we’ll always prefer the alternate version to “Can’t Tell Me Nothing”* – it shows that the rapper who may identify with Jesus actually has a funnybone.
*Anything to post Zach Galifianakis humping a tractor, really.