The Prodigy 34 pcs sticker set

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The Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up music video


Director: Jonas Åkerlund
Producer: ?

Well well, this is the most controversal Prodigy video ever directed by Swedish music video director Jonas Åkerlund. You can't have a controversial single without a similarly controversial video, and this one certainly fits the bill. The video has been all but banned in just about every country you care to mention. It has been put on low rotation, late at night, and it is easy to see why. The video is shot entirely from a first-person perspective of our main character portraying drinking and driving, snorting cocaine, violence, vandalism, nudity and sex. The unedited version also includes a scene of heroin use and a hit and run incident.

It begins plainly enough - having a shower, going about the bathroom, getting dressed and snorting some cocaine. From there she heads out to get something to eat, then on to a dance club where she has a 'few' to drink, feels up a few women, beats up a few guys and trashes the DJ's deck.

From there it's into the bathroom to deposit dinner in a sink. The doorman throws our main character onto the streets, but not after she receives a punch. A very trippy scene follows, lots of swirling images and bright colours, and of her decorating the pavement. Then it's into a topless/strip club where she feels up most of the dancers. She then takes one a stripper (played by model Teresa May) with her.

When they arrive at the main characters car they find out that the keys are lost. So, what other solution is there then to take a brick and smash the carwindow. Then they drive to the main characters house and a full-on sex scene follows. You can see everything. Even a tattoo on the girl's butt in the form of the Prodigy logo (the ant). The real shock comes at the end when everyone thinks it is a bloke, but after they've had sex, the girl leaves the room and we see a mirror. And in the mirror we see our main character... a young, innocent looking girl.

None of the band members will be appearing in the video, which was shot in the BASE CLUB in London's West End. When the Prodigy first saw this video they really hate it! But couple of weeks later when they had talked with they label (XL) they really wanted to release it! It has been banned from terrestrial TV in Britain and many other TV stations have banned the video almost everywhere in the world.

MTV initially said they would not play the video, it has been announced that the station will air an edited version late at night; they call it "ground breaking." The video got its MTV premiere Sunday, December 7th 1997 at midnight during "120 Minutes" and was aired again at 1, 2, and 3 a.m. Although the video is a bit of controversial it still has lots of cool sound and camera effects in it. This is not a typical Prodigy video, but definitely a worth of seeing! MTV still rates SMBU as the Number 1 XRated video around.

Despite the controversy, the video would be nominated for four MTV Video Music Awards, and eventually win Best Dance Video and Breakthrough Video. 8 years later, the full version of the video was aired and voted #1 on New Zealand television show 'U Choose 40', screened on music channel C4 as part of their 'Most Shocking Videos' and 'Top 10 - That's Shocking!' (June 10, 2007) countdowns and voted #2 as part of the 'Banned In The USA!' countdown on August 24, 2007.

    

Quotes

Look, at the end of the day, we do what we do because it suits us. Don't you think it's kind of cool to have a band that offends MTV, that puts out a video that real fans have to dig around for, or stay up late to see. The point is to be true to yourself — otherwise you may as well give up.

It’s dangerous to make sounds in videos. I see it on TV all the time, where people tries to do it, but the result are often really bad. But in ’Smack my Bitch up’ which is full of sound effects it helps the music. The music of The Prodigy are very strong, but it seems empty on TV, and the sound effects helps the music even further forward – Not on CD, not on the radio, but only on TV. After doing that video, people asked me to do sound effects on their videos, and I tries it on all of them. Sometimes it works, but mostly I remove it again, because it destroys the music. There is a thin line from making the perfect sound-editing and destroying the music.

    

Original Smack My Bitch Up video story boards

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See also

Charly

Charly

1991

The Prodigy's first official promo video was shot in the rave.
Fire

Fire

1992

Pretty cool half animated video, but picture quality is poor.
Out Of Space

Out Of Space

1992

Keith in the boiler suit gas mask. Ostriches, and some dancing.
Wind It Up

Wind It Up

1993

Shot in America at Venice Beach California.
One Love

One Love

1993

At the time high budget fully computer animated video.
Poison

Poison

1995

Very good and expensive video, Maxim sings, Leeroy dances, Liam plays the drums.
Firestarter

Firestarter

1996

Shot in old abandoned subway. Keith sings and Liam tries to break the train tracks.
Breathe

Breathe

1996

Lots of bugs, and a alligator. Shot in an abandoned apartment.
Hotride

Hotride

2004

They made a video for Hotride but Liam didn't like it at all so it was binned and never released.
Girls

Girls

2004

First single/video from the Always Outnumbered album.
Spitfire

Spitfire

2005

Awesome live video with stunning effects. This really captures what Prodigy is about.
Omen

Omen

2009

Omen was actually the first official single from Invaders Must Die album.
Warriors Dance

Warriors Dance

2009

An animation resembling stop motion of a secretive fantasy dance party.
Nasty

Nasty

2015

First music video from The Day is My Enemy album.
Ibiza

Ibiza

2015

The Prodigy themselves and Jason Williamson on Sleaford Mods appear in the video for ‘Ibiza’.
Need Some1

Need Some1

2018

Directed by Filipino filmmaker Paco Raterta, the visual was shot entirely in the Philippines.
Timebomb Zone

Timebomb Zone

2018

Music video for "Timebomb Zone" by The Prodigy off the new album No Tourists.
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The Prodigy 34 pcs sticker set

Huge set of The Prodigy stickers. 17 different designs (2 of each) and total of 34 stickers. Sticker sizes vary from 7 cm to 3,5 cm. Order here >