Kanye’s “Fade” Video Was Inspired By Old School Porn

When it debuted at the VMAs in August, Kanye West's video for "Fade" was quite the spectacle. In it, Teyana Taylor spins and shimmies around workout equipment in her bra and panties. After a few minutes of this, she has sex with her fiancé Iman Shumpert in a shower. Then she turns into a cat. Flashdance was an obvious reference for the video. Though we wondered, what other media was used to inspire the video's weird, interesting visuals? Vintage porn, according to the video's director, Eli Russell Linnetz. "I pulled a lot of references from '70s and '80s porn, just on Pornhub," he told Billboard. "That was less about the imagery and more about the texture of the skin, the oiliness." He shared some comparisons on his Instagram:

Linnetz, 24, currently has an "artist residency" with Kanye, according to Billboard. He told the site about the email Kanye sent him with a rough outline of the video: "I just got an email from Kanye super late at night saying, ‘I want you to direct 'Fade.' Space, space, space. ‘Teyana Taylor dancing. Iman Shumpert, taking thousands of years of culture and throwing them into a single frame or moment.'" And so that's what Linnetz did.