Boyz II Men - The Color Of Love

2002

Boyz II Men - The Color Of Love (2002) Director: Director X (supervising) / Benny Boom / Hype Williams / Chris Robinson Era: Post-Millennium R&B (2002) - Early Arista-era Boyz II Men comeback period; multicultural visual ambition in the shadow of post-9/11 cultural yearning for unity High curatorial value as one of the most structurally innovative and geographically ambitious R&B music videos of the early 2000s. Documents four elite directors at peak commercial careers, captures four distinct global cultural environments in a single production, and encodes the specific post-9/11 ideological moment of multicultural unity within mainstream American pop culture. The warm-saturated, high-saturation cinematographic profile and rapid editorial pace are exemplary of premium 2002 R&B broadcast aesthetics. Tier 1 archival priority. Context: Released in summer 2002 as the lead single from Boyz II Men's Arista debut Full Circle, 'The Color of Love' arrived in a post-9/11 media climate saturated with themes of global unity. The video's four-continent structure, Ghana, Puerto Rico, Tokyo, India, plus New York City, made it one of the most geographically ambitious R&B videos of its era, deploying a murderer's row of the era's top Black music video directors. Written and produced by Babyface, the song represented a significant label investment to recapture the group's early-1990s commercial dominance. The multicultural documentary-performance format anticipated later globalist visual trends in pop while drawing on the rich heritage of Boyz II Men as a group that had already transcended genre and demographic boundaries throughout the 1990s. Director notes: The production is structurally unique: each of the four Boyz II Men members filmed his segment in a separate country with a separate director, with the stated purpose of capturing the color and spirit of native peoples around the world. Director X (then known as Little X) acted as supervising director and filmed Michael McCary's segment in Jaipur, India. Benny Boom filmed Nathan Morris's segment in Accra, Ghana. Hype Williams filmed Shawn Stockman's segment in Tokyo, Japan. Chris Robinson filmed Wanyá Morris's segment in San Juan, Puerto Rico. All four members were additionally filmed together in New York City. IMVDb credits Director X also as editor. The video debuted on BET. Arista Records president L.A. Reid publicly framed the video as a statement of unity and brotherhood and a multi-cultural celebration, positioning it explicitly in the post-9/11 cultural moment of 2002.