The Colors of: Hype Williams

We explore the colors of some of the most revered Hype Williams music videos and discuss his color calling cards.

May 10, 2023

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If you have any Hip Hop or R&B influence in your life, you have heard of Hype Williams. He is a household name in the entertainment and music industry. Hype is a director and filmmaker. Many of the classic Hip Hop videos that have been studied, and serve as inspiration for aspiring directors, were created by him.

Music videos are a staple within the entertainment industry. They produce a reflection of fashion, beauty, and art trends. In the 90s, Hip -Hop videos were a look into black culture that the world hadn’t seen before, and they are sadly still the only experience and access some people grant themselves. Hype and his team had a signature style in an emerging genre of music that was starting to become broadly accepted.

One of his known signatures is using a Fisheye Lens. Partnered with John Perez, you can see this style in many of his 90s videos. As time progressed, he grew to have other signatures. As in, using regular widescreen shots, while a second shot is split in the upper and bottom bar.

In the most recent years, while directing “Gold Digger” by Kanye West and “Video Phone” by Beyonce, he emphasized using color aura. Hype used a center shot, with a colored background and a counter soft color light to create an ‘aura” effect around the artist.

How do we get to this article!?

Last week, I was watching a clip of “Doin’ It” by LL Cool J. It was the scene of LL watching a dancer in the window of a room. That scene had an engulfing, gritty nature that was only amplified but the color choices. Seeing this clip reminded me that, like most things, I identify Hype by some of his color decisions. I re-watched and studied some of his most celebrated music videos and came up with key color signatures he has.

(Stylist and Costume Designers play a vital role for directors. I have researched the roles for all the videos and included their names when I found them. I will keep update this as more come to light.)

LL-Cool J-”Doin’ It”

We are going to start with this video not only because I love it. I think this video encompasses numerous color calling card from Hype.

We will get to Hypes Club Scenes later. Spoiler Alert: They all tend to look like this. Colored Lens are the only source of light and the black is Deep.

Hype loves any variation of Blue and white.

“The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” - Missy Elliott (Designed by: Ron Norsworthy , Costume Designer: June Ambrose)

One of his most renowned music videos. In this video, we see a heightened use of his calling card, A Fisheye Lens. Color is used here to amplify the eccentric use of the shots and the notable Missy Elliott.

Here we see Hype use colored lens to project on to white, turning it into another color. His heavy use of color lens is a color signature.

When he uses cool hues, blue and green are usually a pair. One not without the other, unless its for something meant to be bold and stand out.

Hype loves warm scenes.

One thing about Hype, he loves a warm hue scene. A major calling card is a scene with only yellow, oranges, and red-orange illuminating.

Notorious B.I.G- One More Chance

Tupac ft Dr. Dre- California Love

Hype loves an pop of color with black & white.

Fish lens + Black + White Lights + A vibrant Hue = Hype . It is a simple calling card, but it is effective to show energy and movement, while centering the artist.

Getting Jiggy with It: Will Smith. (Stylist: June Ambrose)

Mo Money Mo Problems: Puffy Daddy, Mase, and the Notorious B.I.G (Stylist: June Ambrose)

Hype loves a full Blue or Red Shoot.

If I had to pick Hypes favorite colors, red and blue would be my top picks (yellow and orange would be next). If Belly wasn’t proof enough, Hype clearly loves a red and blue scene. Black as the shadows and red/blue as the main source of color and light is a Hype Williams signature.