Lil Nas X - Panini

Lil Nas X’s recently published music video "Panini" paints an everyday nightmare in which capitalism haunts every corner. It is most likely being used as a metaphor for how advertisements are targeted at an audience by the use of internet cookies to generate profits, but the accuracy of these matching our interests is scaring people.

At the beginning of the video, a futuristic, interlocking font is used to label the music video. The largest font says “Panini” with Lil Nas X’s name above it, and the director Mike Diva credited below. A couple of seconds after the title is shown, a lot of sponsors are shown in the form of screens on buildings in New York Times Square. Sponsors such as FIAT, TikTok, acorns and Beats by Dre are introduced by Lil Nas X using their products. Skai Jackson is then shown sitting down looking at all of this while the camera slowly pans closer to her which creates suspense for the audience, and an idea that action will start soon.

The Skai Jackson feature increases viewers interest in the music video by selecting someone they most likely know from children’s series they have seen in their childhoods (Nickelodeon’s “Hey Jessie”). She is seen trying to make her way through a futuristic city, but every way she looks she sees Lil Nas X on a screen or hologram which is directed specifically at her. This frightens her and makes her try to escape from all of the advertisements, soon realising that they are inevitable when she encounters Lil Nas X on her plane. This portrays a vision of the future where capitalism will be inescapable and government will have control over every human being.

Accompanied by futuristic technology such as electric flying cars and holographic images, this video was directed in a way as to scare the current demographic about the future, and warn them of rapidly developing technology and government access. The futuristic visual effects are edited through post-production with the help of sophisticated editing programs and 3D green screens.