The internet is ablaze with critique and discussion following the recently released music video by French director Romain Gavras for “No Church in the Wild,” the opening track from Jay-Z and Kanye West’s 2011 album, Watch the Throne. As the third song to be made into a music video off of the platinum album, the song deviates from the braggadocio and ego stroking that clouds some of Watch the Throne (and hip hop culture in general) in favor of gritty, visceral visuals.

From the lighting of the first Molotov, the video is turbulent and discomforting. What follows are slow motion shots of open warfare between riot police and disillusioned militant youth, an obvious allusion to the wave of discontent towards establishment that has spread from Tahrir to the Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. The video pulls no punches; highlighting the swelling of protesters’ faces as they are doused in pepper spray, and the ferocity in which the mob swarms the police. Statues loom overheard; stoic yet emulative of the chaos bellow.

However, neither side is painted better than the other. We connect the rioters to our modern conceptions of Occupy and the current clashing in Greece and Canada, but nothing is explicitly stated. Rioters loot shops and destroy private property, while police isolate and beat them mercilessly. Neither side shows quarter nor does either side betray motive, making for an apolitical yet totally relevant commentary that conjures the questions of power, hierarchy, and moral accountability that make the track so powerful.

Whatever you take from it, and whichever side of the riot shield you stand on, Gavras set the bar high for hip hop music in terms of what a music video can really be with his incarnation of “No Church in the Wild.”

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