Jay Z remakes 'Friends' with all-black cast for 'Moonlight' video
Updated | By Tamlyn Canham
The cast of 'Friends' got a major makeover in Jay Z's new 'Moonlight' video.
Jay Z has released the music video for his single, 'Moonlight', and everyone's talking about his 'Friends' remake featuring an all-black cast.
The seven-minute long video is available for streaming exclusively on Tidal, and "everywhere in a week", according to its director Alan Yang.
He shared a teaser of the video on Twitter that shows the cast remaking the famous 'Friends' theme song intro.
But 'Moonlight', which is track eight on Jay Z's critically acclaimed '4:44' album, is more than just an ode to the iconic sitcom.
The video, like the song, addresses the lack of diversity in the US entertainment industry.
"We stuck in La La Land / Even when we win, we lose / We got the same f**kin' flows / I don't know who is who," Jay Z raps on the song.
'La La Land' is a reference to the Academy Award-winning movie of the same name that was mistakenly awarded the Best Picture award, only for it to be announced a few moments later that 'Moonlight' was the actual winner.
"It's like a subtle nod to La La Land winning the Oscar, and then having to give it to Moonlight. It's really a commentary on the culture and where we’re going," he told iHeartRadio in July.
It seems Jay Z's choice of 'Friends' was deliberate.
A sitcom called 'Living Single', a Fox show about six friends living in an apartment in New York, debuted a year before 'Friends' - which has a similar story line.
The all-black cast of 'Living Single' would go on to complain that they never got the "kind of push that 'Friends' did" - despite the latter coming across as a rip-off.
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I directed a music video for Jay-Z. It's called Moonlight. Available on Tidal now and everywhere in a week. pic.twitter.com/UkLfo7g2f2
— Alan Yang (@AlanMYang) August 4, 2017
People talking about how desperately we needed this black Friends in #Moonlight like Living Single weren't actual goals in the 90s and now pic.twitter.com/xBNfg4QxnU
— Christi Trottie (@ChristiTrottie) August 4, 2017
The video for "Moonlight" has the Black Excellence freshmen class doing a FRIENDS send-up dir by Alan Yang wow https://t.co/NVtdB8umuK pic.twitter.com/EW8O0siyRK
— Frazier Tharpe (@The_SummerMan) August 4, 2017
So apparently Jay-Z's #Moonlight video is appropriating white culture but Friends being a rip(spin)off of 'Living Single' isn't. 🙄 pic.twitter.com/ivjD0bunVV
— Dulcé🥀 (@dulcenoire) August 5, 2017
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