Note: I’m not sure if this is official. I don’t see this anywhere at the Gnarls Barkley official site and what not, but its up over at Clay’s rep site (HSI), so I’m assuming this is legit.

Okay, so just in time for the Halloween festivities to begin, Mr. Barney Clay went and gave us all an early treat that is a new Gnarls Barkley shot. What a guy! If you’ve been following along in the comments, you would be aware that there’s been somewhat of a tussle ensuing regarding gimmicks and concepts within most music videos. I’ll say right now, this is very gimmicky, with the whole Blaxploitation angle. However, this is also Gnarls Barkley, almost the definition of gimmicky when it comes to their promotions.

The intermingling of movies and GB are nothing new when it comes to their work, but in this case I believe we have something quite different, yet still within the same territory. For starters, we have the first son of the Blaxploitation forefathers, Mario van Peebles. That’s right, the star of 1993’s paramount Posse!! I know, amazing. But seriously, for those who are aware of the whole Blaxploitation genre and those involved with it, this is actually pretty smart and exciting. For MvP to do this, shows his utter coolness with satiring(?) the very genre that his father began and in which he himself began in also. Its also pretty impressive to see such an actor be down with taking a “step-back” for a music video. But this is Gnarls Barkley we’re talking about, and lately, they’ve been getting away with murder, and I couldn’t be happier.

Semi-spoofing the indispensable Blacula. We find that being an undead ‘Dark Prince of the Ghetto’ can still have it’s low points, especially in the hood. As I watched this, however, I got lost amongst some of the shots and I actually thought to myself, “Wow, what a perfect song to pick for this video.” (This happened around the first verse “Basically I’m complicated…”, Pebbles with his cane, gaudy jewelry, loungin’ in his 70’s caddy limo, looks down and…oh man, it works flawlessly, even with repeat viewings.) Almost immediately I snapped out of my reverie and thought, wow, for a video to do that, is truly priceless. This is probably a throwaway shot for many of you, but for all of its humor and style, I can’t help but realize that it’s been a long time since a video has had that affect on me.

Take a gander my friends and start your Halloween Party engines!!

Gnarls Barkley – Who Cares?
Directed By Barney Clay

Quicktime, via HSI

Quicktime 7 (iPod compatible: 21MB)

Buy the album!