Music Video
The video follows three men wearing black ski masks who are headed to a warehouse where Nas is rapping. On their way, other individuals are seen wearing ski masks as well; be they seemingly ordinary citizens, criminals, or law enforcers. This undiscriminating adornment of a ski mask is used to ironically reveal who in society is easily identified as a thief and who is not. The crew stops at a convenience store where a little boy is shown wearing the ski mask, symbolizing the child's gradual robbery of his parent's hard earned money. They visit a strip club where a stripper is seen wearing a ski mask as she dances on a pole, symbolizing her robbery upon her customers. They pass by a street vendor wearing a ski mask and selling wide catalogue of bootlegged CDs, symbolizing his robbery from artists and filmmakers. A scantily clad young woman in the street is seen wearing a ski mask while being cuddled by her supposed lover (she is also seen wearing a necklace with a small shovel-shaped pendant attached to it that has the engravement "Gold Digger" on it); this symbolizes her robbery of the man that is holding her. The ski mask symbol starts to gain more weight as it is seen worn by two police officers in a patrol car. A group of white-collared office workers are carrying their intoxicated friend home, symbolizing their robbery of their fellow employee (peer pressured drug abuse). Lastly, in a newspaper article that is being read by a seemingly wealthy middle-aged caucasian male (also wearing a mask), shows two CEOs merging their corporation while both of them are wearing ski masks, symbolizing their robbery of their numerous subordinates who probably lost jobs due to the merger. At the end of the music video, Nas joins the group, himself putting on a ski mask to represent that indeed he will take on the 'thief's theme'. The music video had fair rotation on MTV and.
Read more about this topic: Thief's Theme
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