Last night, we grabbed a cab to the G.R. N'Namdi Gallery for the premiere of Kanye's "Heard Em Say" video. And what was blaring out into the rain as soon as we opened the door? TEARS FOR FEARS.
See, Ye's on a bit of an 1980s kick right now, some boat-shoe, Donnie Darko prep school shit. Shopping sprees at Selfridges resulting in bags of Marc Jacobs and boxes of pristine canvas Vans. So it's more than fitting that the "Heard Em Say" clip we watched last night was basically the K West version of a-ha's "Take On Me", a stark black and white blend of live action and sketchy animation courtesy of Bill Plympton, who Kanye brought on-stage to talk about the collaboration ("Why'd you have to come up on the platform, man? You could have stayed on the floor and it'd look like we're the same height.") and bask in some shared applause.
After the video rolled twice, Kanye explained that the original Michel Gondry video for "Heard Em Say" is still coming out around Christmas, and opened the floor to questions ("What was your favorite animation as a kid?" "Thundercats. The worst was when you woke up too early and had to wait for Smurfs to be over before the good cartoons came on.")
After that, the invited guests were free to down Hennessy sidecars and flutes of Moet, gawk at the blown up video stills on the walls, and dance to Phil Collins' "Easy Lover" and the Romantics' highly underrated "Talking In Your Sleep".
The jams in question were expertly selected by none other than our dude Mark Ronson, who spent the morning downloading Me Decade hits at Kanye's request ("I asked him if he wanted any new shit mixed in, and he said 'ALL EIGHTIES!'") but insists that Kanye did not make him rock the ill Smooth Criminal hat, skinny tie, and Members Only jacket on purpose.