Chamillionaire Calls Lady Gaga's 'Telephone' Video 'Genius'
Once Lady Gaga and “Honey B” Beyoncé joined forces as a team of femme fatales in the video for their pop smash “Telephone,” it was only natural for their music industry peers, namely Chamillionaire, to form an opinion about the nine-and-a-half-minute visuals.
The Houston rapper was mesmerized by the cinematic piece upon initially viewing it. “I thought it was genius, from a directorial standpoint and an iconic standpoint,” he reveals to staging-rapup.kinsta.cloud. “When I saw that video, I saw so many racy images.”
That daring display of imagery lead Chamillionaire to compare Gaga to another pop superstar who is no stranger to pushing the envelope. “Lady Gaga has always been big, but before her there was Madonna,” he states. “[The video] reminded me of Madonna. It also reminded me of the fact that [Lady Gaga] is so big that people are gonna be like, ‘Oh my goodness, I can’t believe you’re doing that. What the heck?'”
With many artists’ creativity being stifled by record labels’ decreasing budgets, the Grammy-winning artist applauded the platinum-haired singer’s ability to do as she pleased when it came to the clip’s concept. “The freedom to be able to do whatever you want is an incredible thing in the music industry,” he admits. “I appreciate that because nowadays man, most people want to do that but can’t.”
As for his favorite “Telephone” moments, the “Ridin’ Dirty” rhymer couldn’t pinpoint just one. “[There] was so much weird stuff that was really weird but really dope,” adds Cham. “There was a lot of originality in it—she had the glasses and they were smoking. It’s definitely something that you will go back and look at the video 20 times and pick up something different every time.”
–Georgette Cline