Synopsis

The video blends performance footage with scenes from the political satire *Bulworth*. Pras appears as a revolutionary-style figure in a bleak, militarized city, surrounded by gas-masked dancers and street crowds. Warren Beatty and Halle Berry reprise their film roles, while Mya appears amid the media and political spectacle. The central visual twist comes when Beatty's character appears to remove his face, revealing Pras underneath. The imagery turns the song into a surreal campaign for a new kind of Black celebrity and political power.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was designed as a companion piece to *Bulworth*, using footage from the film alongside newly shot material rather than simply presenting a conventional artist performance.

• Warren Beatty and Halle Berry appear in the video in their *Bulworth* roles. Beatty's appearance is used for a deliberately surreal face-reveal gag that connects the film's political satire to Pras' pop-star persona.

• Pras is presented as a fictional first African-American president, extending the video's mixture of hip-hop imagery, campaign spectacle and dystopian science fiction.

• The production reportedly had a budget of about $1 million, unusually ambitious for a rap video of its period. The result became a regular MTV presence and helped keep the *Bulworth* connection visible after the film's release.

• The video received two nominations at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards: Best Rap Video and Best Video from a Film.

• Ol' Dirty Bastard's participation in the song came about almost accidentally. According to Pras, ODB entered the wrong Los Angeles studio, heard the track and recorded his verse in one take. His unexpected contribution became one of the record's defining features.

• Mya's chorus was built around an interpolation of "Islands in the Stream," the Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton hit written by the Bee Gees. The familiar melody helped give the track its unusually broad crossover appeal.

• The song was the title track of Pras' debut solo album, released after the Fugees' breakthrough. Its success made "Ghetto Supastar" the signature solo hit of his career.