#freestyler

Top 100 Best Music Videos of All-Time

FREESTYLER BOMFUNK MC'S 1999 The music video for the song was mainly filmed at the Hakaniemi metro station, an underground station on the Helsinki Metro line in Finland with platforms 21 metres below sea level, as well as in the nearby Merihaka neighborhood. The principal "home boy" featured in the video is Marlo Snellman, a Finnish model and musician, who later released his own single titled "Dust" and went on to work as producer for his own projects such as "Hipsters" and "Okta". The actor was 15 years old at the time of shooting and got the part through his mother, Finnish modelling magnate Laila Snellman. Marlo has a restaurant in Paris named Recoin. The video begins with a young man dancing extravagantly during the instrumental intro of the song. Marlo's character is waiting for a train while listening to "Freestyler" on his MiniDisc (Sony Walkman MZ-R55) recorder. When he enters the train, he walks down the aisle past Ismo Lappalainen. He finds a seat across from Raymond Ebanks (B.O. Dubb), the lead singer of the Bomfunk MC's; seated behind Ebanks is Dan Ahti Tolppanen, alias Uniikki. Ebanks imbues Marlo's Sony MiniDisc remote controller with the ability to pause, rewind, or fast-forward individuals. When Marlo realises that he has this ability, he spends the duration of the video manipulating passersby, dancers, escalators, and even the train, with Raymond appearing in the background wherever he goes, watching Marlo. As Marlo comes across the Bomfunk MC's, he tries to manipulate them to no effect. When Raymond approaches Marlo, Marlo accidentally rewinds himself, and the whole video rewinds to the beginning. The music video is a play on themes of empowerment, with the power of the music being transferred to and in the end taken from Marlo by Ebanks. There is a continuity error in the video with the number on the train carriage changing throughout the sequence.