“It came about when I saw the pictures of the fake Paris in China,” he told Dazed earlier this year, “Everyone is talking about cultural appropriation and I was like, ‘That thing is the most insane fucking cultural appropriation.’ It’s almost like you don’t put it on a moral level – it’s not Iggy Azalea singing like a black woman, it’s fucking insane. It’s a stunning piece of filmmaking, made all the more stunning when you learn that no CGI was used in it.Īs Gavras explained, the video was also inspired by cultural appropriation debates. It stars Hassan Kone, a black man with albinism, who begins the story in a purple room, moves to a blue car, drives around a grey environment, and ends surrounded by 300 schoolkids with yellow hair. 'Hold Up' and 'Formation' are only two of the must-watch clips from.

The video takes place in Tianducheng, a replica of Paris constructed in east China. Lemonade was a major moment this year, and it's hard to pick just one music video we loved most. The NPR Music team picks its favorite music videos of 2016, a year when artists and directors chased an impulse to experiment with story, scale and style. Jamie xx’s “Gosh” featured high up in our music videos of the year last year, but this year it received a second official visual courtesy of director Romain Gavras – and it was one of the most astounding things we’d seen in years.

Best 2016 music videos