How Hype Williams' 'Belly' revolutionized the art of cinematography and fashion in hip-hop

When Harmony Korine's “Spring Breakers” was released in 2013, at least a few viewers had the same reaction to the slow-motion heist illuminated by black light at the beginning of the film - its resemblance to “BELLY”. The reference is to a 1998 film, the first and so far only feature directed by the visionary music video director Hype Williams.

The reference occurs in two ways here: at the beginning of Belly, the robbers Tommy Bunds (DMX), Sincere (Nas), and their partners calm down after a job at Tommy's immaculate home in upscale Jamaica Estates. For a bit of nighttime entertainment, Tommy puts on the first film that Harmony Korine directed in 1997, Gummo. The film rolls on his big screen projector. "Shits bugged out," says Tommy, as two boys on screen act as if they’re shooting at each other with firearms.

The cameo of Gummo is an element of the dense web of allusions and references that Williams establishes in his pastiche right from the initial scenes. Tommy's home is openly Kubrickian, where a Steadicam roams the open floor plan.

After a while, Sincere returns to his wife, Tionne (Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, from the group TLC), and to his more modest home in St. Albans, which is (sub)illuminated in dark shades of mahogany that seem meant to recall Michael Corleone's complex in The Godfather: Part II. (Previously, we see a gun being retrieved from a bathroom, a more direct homage to the first The Godfather.)

As Tommy gets in the shower, MTV News' Kurt Loder reports on the news of a new ultra-potent heroin hitting the streets, and Tommy's girlfriend, Keisha (Taral Hicks), is calling a number revealed on her pager: she ends up calling Tommy’s “affair”, only 16 years old, Tamika (Tiara Marie). Tamika, who talks on the pink phone while wearing pink shorts and a pink bikini top in a pink room, even appears to be broadcast by MTV, specifically one of the characteristic videos colored by Hype Williams. It’s hard to believe that these spaces, Tommy’s house, Sincere’s house, and Keisha’s room, all exist in the same world, let alone in the same film.

Add in the smart details of the screenplay by Williams, Nas, and Anthony Bodden, the unexpected touches of humor from DMX, and you have Belly - a film that changed the way Hollywood viewed Hip-Hop forever. The film’s critical reception didn’t stop it from becoming a cultural classic, perhaps even more significant than its visual influence. The film paved the way for rappers in the film industry and changed the way they were perceived: figures in the industry had difficulty being recognized as multifaceted artists and escaping the stereotype created around rap/hip-hop artists within the industry.

In the film, Williams employed a variety of angles and camera movements to create a dynamic visual style. He used wide shots to showcase the characters' environments and establish a sense of space. Additionally, Williams often used handheld cameras, giving the film a sense of urgency and immediacy. He also employed slow-motion and freeze-frame shots to emphasize key moments, where the similarity to his music videos becomes apparent.

Williams also uses color grading to create a unique visual style. The film has a distinct color palette, with deep blues, greens, and purples that contribute to the stylized and glamorous atmosphere of the film. The colors often appear desaturated, giving the film a soft, almost monochromatic look.

It is very common to think of “pastiche” (a cinematic device that pays homage to another filmmaker’s cinematography by imitating specific scenes or iconic moments from a film) when it comes to Williams. The 2007 book ‘Medium Cool: Music Videos from Soundies to Cellphones’ contains an essay titled “Paradoxes of Pastiche: Spike Jonze, Hype Williams, and the Race of the Postmodern Auteur” by Roger Beebe, which begins by noting that it was only in the early 1990s that music video directors' names began appearing in the credits displayed at the beginning and end of the video, joining the artist’s name, song title, and album and record label. This provided 90s music video directors with an unprecedented level of public name recognition, which, in turn, tended to facilitate the transition to feature film directing.

His beginning

Born Harold Williams, his nickname comes from the time when he was a 12-year-old graffiti artist, marked as “Hype 1” and “Hype Love”. He grew up in Hollis, Queens. He studied at Andrew Jackson High School in Cambria Heights, where LL Cool J and 50 Cent also attended. He studied film at Adelphi University in Garden City, Long Island. Around that time, he began an apprenticeship at Classic Concepts Video Productions under the tutelage of “Uncle” Ralph McDaniels, whose program Video Music Box aired on New York public television starting in 1984 and is widely regarded as the precursor to Yo! MTV Raps and BET's Rap City. “We gave him his first videos,” McDaniels said of Williams, “those we didn't have time to make.”

These “rejects,” presumably, included songs like “We Want Money” by B.W.P. (Bytches with Problems) often referred to as a female version of “2 Live Crew” and “Just Hangin’ Out” by Main Source. For M.O.P. (Mash Out Posse), the Brooklyn duo made up of Billy Danze and Lil’ Fame, he shot the music video for the single “How About Some Hardcore,” from 1993, which appeared on the soundtrack of House Party 3. The video opens with the crossing of St. Marks and Saratoga streets in Brownsville, reminiscent of the scrolling along the sign of Linden Boulevard that opens Belly.

Hollywood and hip-hop

At this point in the history of East Coast hip-hop video, a specific type of visual style was still dominant when it came to music videos. The classic aesthetic of group members around burning barrels was still predominant, a way that Williams perfected and surpassed in his video for “…Ain't Nuthing Ta” by Wu-Tang Clan.

Williams was still following trends, though it wasn’t long until he would start setting them. The music video for “Big Poppa” by Notorious B.I.G., with Puffy in a hot tub with champagne, was proudly labeled as a Big Dog Films production, and the company that Williams created would serve high-level work, as rap videos continued to evolve into something more eccentric, more colorful, more luxurious.

1997 was the year of Hype Williams, with videos for “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See” by Busta Rhymes, “The Rain (Sup Dupa Fly)” by Missy Elliott, “Mo Money, Mo Problems” by Notorious B.I.G. feat (Puff Daddy, Ma$e), winner of the MTV Music Award “I'll Be Missing You,” Puff’s tribute to Biggie, and “Feel So Good,” Ma$e’s release which would come across as a bid to replace Notorious. Williams was the official artist of the collective during the peak of Bad Boy Records.

Finally, Belly

It was no surprise when Variety magazine announced that Williams was set to direct a feature film surrounding an “urban drama.” Undoubtedly, due to the demands of preparing and shooting a feature film, Williams' music video production decreased a bit that year. His main personality-building project was for none other than DMX: Née Earl Simmons of Yonkers, when X signed with Def Jam, Williams was the one who directed his debut single, the black-and-white music video “Get At Me Dog” released in February 1998.

Then Belly happened. Between the releases of two major albums, on November 4, 1998, DMX's debut hit the screens. And though it has since its release reached prestige as a “hood classic,” Belly didn’t make money on initial release. It was a project that struggled in its production from the beginning. Williams argued with executives at Shooting Gallery. Accustomed to improvising on video sets, he grew frustrated with the constraints of unionized filming. As the budget was exceeded, pages of the script were thrown out the window.

The final product, forged in the fire of conflict, is somewhat confusing if judged by the standards of what would be a well-made film, but the film possesses a number of fascinating characteristics and over time takes on a status almost as a “cult” film due to its enormous cultural weight and the figures involved.

The “black visual”

Williams is almost supernaturally good at establishing shots, making urban spaces unfamiliar with wide-angle settings whose distortion gives the streets the dimensions of a coliseum. Belly was filmed by cinematographer Malik Hassan Sayeed, whose most prominent films prior (Clockers, He Got Game) were for Spike Lee.

The exposure is clear and superabundant, but the film’s images have an impressive hyper-clarity throughout, and it’s filled with vignettes that stick in your brain, like Black (Jay Black) swaying back and forth and crying on the couch. Williams also has a Midas touch in action scenes, they are not wonders of clarity, but of undeniable creativity. There’s the federal raid on a hideout in Omaha, with Mark (Hassan Johnson) jumping out a window and running, with the soundtrack of the opening of “I Wanna Live” by BraveHearts and Nas (“We can’t be stopped by the bitch-ass cops...”), later: Method Man, armed, stumbling at the crossing of a strip club in Nebraska (“The Gilz Nilz”), exchanging gunfire with arriving police, he’s head to toe camouflaged in orange and black, an easy target before getting into a getaway car that waits and, apparently, escapes clean. And, of course, that opening, with an acapella version of “Back to Life” by Soul II Soul kicking in as DMX steps out of a silver Benz. This insertion detail is filmed from the sidewalk perspective, because Williams loves to put the camera in unexpected places. Not once, but twice, the shooting scenes are seen through the point of view of a drugged shooter, the target blurry, indistinct.

In a 2003 article titled “Believe the Hype: Hype Williams and Afrofuturist Filmmaking,” which appeared in the Australian online cinema newspaper Refractory: A Journal of Entertainment Media, Thomas F. Defrantz claims that Williams is responding to the call for a “black visual” or as the term itself in English “black visual intonation” (BVI) that black cinema theorist and cinematographer Arthur Jafa made in a 1992 essay of the same title, suggesting the use of “irregular and untempered (non-metronomic) camera rates and frame replication to make cinematic movement function in a way that approaches black visual.”

With Belly, writes Defrantz, Williams “offers an extensive meditation on how movement, musicality, and outrageous style can create a visual experience that expands possibilities for the cinematic medium toward evoking black visual and aesthetics. The combination of visual and verbal rhythms becomes explicit in the film's opening, which overlays in time with the cadence of DMX's narration flow: “I sold my soul to the devil / Price was cheap / It was cold on this level / Twice as deep…”.

Williams is drawing on methods to find a cinematic form for the vernacular styles of R&B and hip-hop. It’s clear that trying to convince the general world to pay attention to the aesthetic is a losing game - Magic Johnson cited Belly as “overwhelmingly negative and violent representations of African Americans.”

The plot

Even if we limit our discussion to content, it’s worth noting that the film's narrative arc is a sort of “progress of a gangster’s life”. Following the pattern established at the beginning of the intersection between Tommy and Sincere's domestic lives, the film contrasts the personal journeys of the two men, friends who drift apart; functioning as narrators, as they separate before arriving at the same final destination, which in the film happens as a sort of increase in consciousness. Sincere is the more thoughtful of the two - driving through Omaha on a drug trafficking trip out of the city with Tommy, he discusses a self-improvement book he’s reading, written by a spiritual leader called “Minister,” which makes him “think in a totally new format and question the purpose of life.” This generates the following exchange:

Tommy: “Ain’t no purpose, dog. It’s money. We born to fuckin’ die, man. In the meantime, get money. Fuck a book, man . . . Shit is lovely for me, man. I’m gonna stop when I’m dead, end of story, man. You gots to be a leader, dog. That book is fuckin’ your head up.”

Sincere: “Yo, when’s the last time you read anything, man?”

Tommy: “Never, motherfucker! What you need to start thinking about is your seed, man. ’Cause shorty can’t eat no books, dog."

The legacy of Hype and 'Belly'

Williams' visionary approach to storytelling is evident in every frame as he skillfully weaves together gritty urban landscapes, opulent nightclubs, and surreal dream sequences, all enhanced by his meticulous attention to detail. Williams' cinematographer, Malik Hassan Sayeed, brilliantly utilized cinematography not just to serve the story but also as an integral part of its narrative, elevating the viewing experience and leaving a lasting impression on the audience.

The visual legacy of the short film continues to inspire filmmakers and shape the aesthetics of music videos, commercials, and contemporary cinema. Hype Williams' innovative visual style introduced a new level of artistry and innovation to the medium. 'Belly' not only pushed the boundaries of what was visually possible in cinema but also provoked a cultural shift in how stories are told and aesthetics are shaped.

His bold experimentation serves as a powerful testament to the potential to push limits and reimagine visual storytelling in filmmaking, inspiring filmmakers to take risks and explore new frontiers in visual narratives.

One of the most notable ways Belly influenced the industry was through its impact on fashion and style. The representation of high-quality fashion and luxurious lifestyle in the film inspired many in the hip-hop community, with Tommy (DMX) and Sincere (Nas) becoming fashion icons. In addition to its influence on fashion, the film's soundtrack, featuring popular artists like DMX, Nas, Jay-Z, and Wu-Tang Clan, became a cultural phenomenon and further helped popularize hip-hop music.

Beyond entertainment, Belly also brought attention to the challenges faced by disadvantaged communities in America’s inner cities. Its representation of crime and urban violence raised awareness and inspired a new wave of socially conscious hip-hop artists.

Streetwear in Belly

By the late 90s, Hype had become the leading director of rap and R&B music videos. Current music videos possess a defined (and subsequently redefined) language produced by Williams. His videos were modern visual art pieces and his transition to cinema seemed only natural. ‘Belly’ is undeniably iconic due to an epic cast, amazing visual style, and costume design that encapsulates the era by costume designer June Ambrose.

June's work in the film brought luxury products and hip hop classics, i.e., the men’s fashion on the streets of Queens. In one of the standout scenes, Tommy - played by DMX - along with Sincere from Nas, hides in Tommy's house after the robbery. Sitting in the luxurious home, wearing baggy leather outfits and high-neck sweaters, white t-shirts, and enormous chains with a Jesus pendant. Their outfits suggest their success in New York's crime scene, also emphasized by Williams’ use of low-angle shots.

At the time, street fashion was synonymous with opulence: the use of accessories signified success and influence. Expensive jeans, like Evisu - Ambrose receives her definitive credit for bringing the brand to America - instead of simple Levi's, showcase the exponential growth of fashion’s love for streetwear. Furthermore, Hype’s trend of making jewelry sparkle continued in Belly - when Tommy meets Ox, the Jamaican drug boss's style is ostentatious yet subtly reflects his secure, upper-class lifestyle. At another moment, while Williams focuses on a close-up behind Ox's ear, where his huge earrings occupy almost half the screen, it’s clear that in the world of Belly, jewelry represents authority.

The short film features many of the brands that defined hip-hop in the 90s. Enyce, Ecko, Avirex, and Phat Farm are some of the brands widely appearing throughout the film. However, in the context they are placed, these brands are indicative of a lower social class. Unlike the protagonists, who wear leather and designer brands, the “urban” clothing brands are associated with drug dealers - Sincere returns to the project building wearing a white leather Avirex jacket.

The entire plot of Belly is an unending war for domination. Ambrose and Williams explore this in menswear: military clothing appears during shootouts - Method Man shows up in camouflage with Timberlands on his feet. It’s no surprise that hip-hop influenced brands - OFF-WHITE or Yeezy - have made extensive use of camouflage print in various collections.

Despite the time spent in New York, one of the most aesthetically pleasing sequences of the film occurs when a quick visit to Jamaica is made. Tommy appears wearing a pair of stylish gold sunglasses in the back seat of a black Benz, with oval lenses from classic Cartier. However, here, the glasses are minimized by a patterned polo and completely white pants.

Even though hip-hop has always been a treasure trove of fashion influences, rarely does a project encapsulate the aesthetics of an era. When the right pieces come together, the result can be something impressive like Belly. It is visually clear that the short film played its part in documenting and defining hip-hop style of the 90s - and solidified its influence on fashion week collections to this day. Considering its cast and impact, Belly is and always will be representative of hip-hop’s enduring relationship with current fashion.

Text in collaboration with @kadukronbauer