"She Just Womanned Up and Did It": Nabil Talks Nicki Minaj and the "Lookin' Ass N****" Video

When Nicki Minaj dropped the video for “Lookin’ Ass N----” on Wednesday, fans were excited to see her in rarefied form, salting the earth and stabbing the eyes out of anyone who’d so much as look in her general direction with an unkind thought. The song’s fuck-your-gaze attitude was greatly amplified by the video, which pays tribute to Nicki as elemental force by letting her stand in the desert by herself, snarling so intensely you could feel her stare through the screen. We hopped on Skype with director Nabil to discuss the video’s concept, how he started working with Nicki, and why you should never be late to a shoot.

Noisey: How did you get linked up with Nicki?
Namil: I got a call from her manager, Gee Roberson, who I’ve known through Kanye for years, and he said that she wants me to do a video. She said she wanted something really simple; iconic, photographic, and simple. I remember her saying, “Just me.” So I said okay, but you know, then I came up with the idea right then and there talking to her. Obviously the idea isn’t too elaborate. [laughs]

The video is really simple, whereas a lot of her videos are super colorful and have this manic energy.
Yeah, the song is so raw I wanted to keep it super raw. Even with her look, we discussed her look and she gave me an inkling of what she was going to do. I was just like really into it. I wanted to see her like that.

Where did that outfit come from?
Her stylist. [laughs] I think, it’s on her Instagram but I don’t even know, it’s some high fashion stuff. [NOTE: Here's a breakdown via her Instagram.]

Throughout the video there's also a bunch of dudes looking at the camera. Whose eyes were those?
They’re just random dudes. Actually, funny enough, I casted some eyes that I really liked and then when I was shooting we couldn’t find the guys on set, so I think a couple of the ones we used are part of my crew. Yeah, it was hilarious. Right at the end of the shoot, like as soon as I wrapped up the shot like four dudes walking through the desert came to us, walked to us being like “Yo, we’re ready” and I’m like, Man, I hope you’re ready for your drive home.

Where in the desert were you shooting?
It was in the Joshua Tree area. I thought it would be a cool contrast: Just a simple white sky. It was a lot of light stuff. She was burning up. I can show you the lights set up, but it’s these lights called Firestarters. They have to overpower the sun, you know what I mean—to make the sky dark, you have to basically overpower the sun. So she was cold. Like super cold, and then she’d walk into the sun and be way too hot. I apologize, Nicki, but I think I made her sick.

We'll pass it along. And was that gun really going off at the end?
Yeah, yeah. She was firing it. She was firing a bunch of times, probably like 15-20 rounds. Basically we went through, I don’t know if they call them clips or rounds or whatever but she went through a few of them. They shoot blanks. But still, they’re fucking intense as hell. I shot them. I’m surprised she handled it pretty well—they were trying to tell me she might have issues, and she almost didn’t want to do it and I said just go for it. I showed myself doing it like a weirdo and she just… I guess manned up—or womanned up—and did it.

Follow Nabil on Instagram and on Twitter, and check out his other work at his website.

This video makes Jeremy Gordon a little anxious, but mostly in a good way. He's on Twitter - @jeremypgordon