Jay Z remakes 'Friends' with all-black cast for 'Moonlight' video

Jay Z remakes 'Friends' with all-black cast for 'Moonlight' video

The cast of 'Friends' got a major makeover in Jay Z's new 'Moonlight' video.

Jay Z 'Friends' remake 'Moonlight'
Jay Z 'Moonlight' video

Jay Z has released the music video for his single, 'Moonlight', and everyone's talking about his 'Friends' remake featuring an all-black cast. 

The seven-minute long video is available for streaming exclusively on Tidal, and "everywhere in a week", according to its director Alan Yang. 

He shared a teaser of the video on Twitter that shows the cast remaking the famous 'Friends' theme song intro. 

But 'Moonlight',  which is track eight on Jay Z's critically acclaimed '4:44' album, is more than just an ode to the iconic sitcom. 

The video, like the song, addresses the lack of diversity in the US entertainment industry. 

"We stuck in La La Land / Even when we win, we lose / We got the same f**kin' flows / I don't know who is who," Jay Z raps on the song. 

'La La Land' is a reference to the Academy Award-winning movie of the same name that was mistakenly awarded the Best Picture award, only for it to be announced a few moments later that 'Moonlight' was the actual winner. 

"It's like a subtle nod to La La Land winning the Oscar, and then having to give it to Moonlight. It's really a commentary on the culture and where we’re going," he told iHeartRadio in July. 

It seems Jay Z's choice of 'Friends' was deliberate. 

A sitcom called 'Living Single', a Fox show about six friends living in an apartment in New York, debuted a year before 'Friends' - which has a similar story line. 

The all-black cast of 'Living Single' would go on to complain that they never got the "kind of push that 'Friends' did" - despite the latter coming across as a rip-off. 

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