"I'm a Slave 4 U"
Release date: September 25, 2001
Duration: 03:23
Director: Francis Lawrence;
Production: D.N.A.
Place of Shot: Universal City, CA
Costume Changes: 2
Choreographer: Wade Robson
The Plot: Britney Spears is portrayed as a slave to the music who dances all night until she and the other dancers are sweaty and near dehydration, forcing them to search for water.
The video's setting is at sauna found within a run-down, futuristic city. We first find Spears out on a balcony, tempting viewers with her eyes and hands. She makes her way inside the building, while wearing her thong outside her jeans and sweating profusely, and begins a dance segment that continues in different cuts throughout the video. The next cuts show Britney staring into a mirror in a dirty bathroom as she shakes her rump, and in front of a wall of bright lights. Spears makes her way into a different room of the sauna and puts her hands up to one of the walls. Here, she begins dancing suggestively for the people behind her. This tempts the group of people to raise Britney up, in a similar fashion that is done to an artist at concerts when they jump into the crowd.
The ending of the video finds Spears sitting in the corner of the main room, sweating as hard as ever. Several people begin to crowd around her, and one even starts to lick the sweat off her face. As Britney is gasping for breath, we see that she is in the center of a group orgy. Next, someone opens a lighter towards the ceiling sprinklers, but it doesn't let out any water. But then outside, rain begins to pour down from the sky, and the people are seen running out onto the balcony to get a taste right before the video ends.
Facts:
- The next video presented in the "Making The Video" show;
- DJ Scribble makes a cameo in the video and plays himself;
- The scene with the guy licking Britney's face was not planned. Britney was furious because of it;
- Became her first project ever to not retire on MTV's TRL because the video for her next single, "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman," premiered on the countdown before "Slave" had enough days to allow itself to retire;
- The video was chosen as the Most Fashionable Video of 2001 on MTV Philippines;
- The video was shot on Labour Day.
Video Mistakes:
- As Britney moves from left to right in front of the wall of large bottles some of the bottles with tops on move from side to side. It looks like a camera trick rather than a continuity error.
- When Britney approaches one of the male dancers who is standing with his back to a large mirror, you can see the reflection of the cameraman with camera and some other equipment.
Britney about the video: "The very end scene when the guy licks me, I didn't know that he was going to do that. I didn't for real. The dancers had choreography that they were supposed to be doing. We were going to take one take, and he did it, and I was like, 'OK, we're done'. But I thought that it's the most sensual video that I've ever done. It is a good reflection of the song 'cause the song is very sexy."
