A few weeks ago we brought you some of our early favorites for Stones Throw Records‘ excellent video contest. Well, we’d like to think that the RESPECT. co-sign was the lucky charm, as director Tuomas Vauhkonen’s excellent take on J Dilla‘s “Last Donut of the Night” won first place. It’s a great video, but there are some even better, more imaginative takes in the contest’s top five:

Jaylib‘s “The Heist”–Directed by Rory Gamble (video above)

This video is exactly what the Stones Throw contest should be about: a creative interpretation that doesn’t confine itself to the music, but also includes the distinct visual art styles that many of the Stones Throw artists are known for. The animation’s early-South Park feel is perfect for a Jaylib track, with the video’s protagonist (we’ll call him Dilla Donut) even rocking a Stan Marsh stocking cap over his eyes. Bringing over Madlib‘s original artwork for Quasimoto‘s rhymes is also a nice touch, and the entire environment and aesthetic of the video has the same sort of air of understated complexity that both Dilla and Madlib exhude in their music. This video should be the winner, for sure.

Madvillain‘s “Strange Ways”–Directed by Jean-Yves Blanc

The stop-motion, claymation approach in this video is really well done. The sculpted MF Doom would be sitting on my desk this second if made readily available–it just feels right. The ending animation of the Madvillainy cover is particularly dope.

J Dilla‘s “Geek Down”–Directed by Steve Smith (vaguely NSFW)

Director Steve Smith took a very different approach here, trying to attach a Grateful Dead aesthetic to a Dilla instrumental. It isn’t a wholly inappropriate pairing, but the video is just too disturbing to really feel like it fits comfortably. Kind of cool, though.

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