Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” video is no doubt a conversation starter. While everyone continues to analyze Gambino’s polarizing visual, legendary videographer Hype Williams recently added his two cents to the conversation.

During his panel talk at Red Bull’s Music Festival New York Director’s Series, Williams compared Gambino’s controversial video with his own “Hate Me Now” visual starring Nas and Diddy (or Puffy at the time).

To jog your memory, Nas’ 1999 video featured the Queens rapper and Diddy being crucified on a cross. At the time, Diddy, a devout Catholic, demanded that his crucifixion scene be removed from the video before its premiere on MTV. Unfortunately, the original edit premiered on the video channel, which resulted in an angry Diddy assaulting Nas’ manager Steve Stoute with a champagne bottle.

According to Billboard, Williams maintains that the original edit of his "Hate Me Now" video would have been a conversation starter back then in the same way that Gambino's "This Is America" clip is today.

"What you see here is the watered-down version of what went down," said Williams about his re-edited "Hate Me Now" visual. "This is very important and I want everybody to know that this video was probably, for its time period, the equivalent to what Childish Gambino just did."

“The first edit of this video at this time had to be the greatest thing anyone has ever seen. Because of who Puff was and where he was going, he needed a release so he had no restraints filming this video," he continued. "The things that he did and the things we filmed him doing were so radical when edited to this music, I couldn’t even describe it, but at this time, the greatest thing we’ve ever seen was Puff as a special effect, something that I feel is happening with Childish.”

You can read about Hype Williams' discussion about his influential videos at Billboard.com.

Watch Nas's "Hate Me Now" Video Feat. Puff Daddy

Watch Childish Gambino's "This Is America" Video

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