Kelly Rowland & Nelly - Dilemma

Artist - Nelly & Kelly Rowland 
Year - 2002
Type - Narrative/Performance
Genre - R&B/Hiphop
Audience - Mainly Teenagers 


Dilemma was a duet between American rapper Nelly and Ex Destiny's Child member Kelly Rowland. The single was released in 2002 from both Nelly's album Nellyville and Kelly's Album Simply Deep. The song won a Grammy Award for the best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Dilemma was Kelly Rowland's first international single since leaving the band Destiny's Child. 


The lyrics are based around a love story between two people which just cannot happen. With Kelly being the lead female, and Nelly being the lead male, the video shows the narrative of the lyrics. 

The video begins with an slow pan downwards, with a close up on the trees, almost like the beginning of the movie with the title " Welcome to Nellyville" appearing as the camera pans for an establishing shot. We see a long shot of your typical American street, with people mainly kids walking, and riding their bikes, with the camera to the back of them. 
Rapping then begins, as we see older big looking black men playing cards, and quick flashes of different people doing different things. 


The rapping then stops and the slower music kicks in when Kelly Rowland begins to sing at (0:24) we see a transition into a long shot of Nelly sat on the step of a house, wearing a hat, sun glasses ( clearing showing the nice weather ) a baggy top and baggy trousers, and trainers, also the words Nelly appear on the screen, presenting him to the audience. 


The camera then cuts to Kelly also sat on the step looking more stylish with skinny jeans on, boots and a strappy quite low cut top. The title of the song then appears, again making it more like a movie, introducing the singers, and the title of the song. 

The camera focuses on each singer when they begin to sing, showing more emotion with the song, and making it add more narrative rather than performance. Kelly is still showing the sex symbol of women, with her short dress (1:33). There are a lot eye line matches and shot reverse shot used to show more emotion of the two, with the song being about love. 
The wealth is shown in this video, with the gold chains " bling" and the big houses, the fast cars, all of this misc en scene signifies wealth. 

At 3:07 when Kelly is singing and looking out of the window, with Nelly at the bottom you could see some intertextuality being used there, as it is almost like a kind of Romeo and Juliet moment that forbidden or frowned upon love. In this scene is also a low angle shot , long shot on Nelly. The camera then cuts to them in the street and back to Kelly in the window with a medium close up used. The video ends with them dancing in the street close together, with the women who is Kelly's mother telling her to come inside, the words " the end" then appear with a slow fade out to black.
The music video was filmed where Desperate Housewives is filmed now, which is part of Universal Studios. The video premièred on MTV making the video.