That Usher plays a spurned lover in his brand-new “Climax” video indicates there are apparently some people for whom airy slow jams like “Nice & Slow,” “Burn,” and “Throwback” just aren’t enough. For those people we have another just-posted video, a seven-minute clip for Young Jeezy’s Thug Motivation 103 cut “Leave You Alone” featuring Ne-Yo. It’s another slow jam, but Jeezy keeps it gritty, as is his wont, by wearing a censored baseball cap, quoting Biggie’s macho tough talk, and prominently featuring multiple liquor brands. He’s the philandering, insensitive, and ostensibly “real” Mr. Wrong to Usher’s too-sweet-to-be-true Mr. Right.
Unfortunately, Jeezy/Ne-Yo’s woman friend evidently has “crazy brothers” (you can tell how crazy they are because of all of their tattoos). So when she runs off with the gruff-voiced Atlanta rapper, after lying to her Spanish-speaking, devoutly Catholic father, her brothers show up to confront the Snowman. It’s like a pinkie promise isn’t worth anything anymore! As would have been more befitting the “Climax” video, however, this one doesn’t really go anywhere — the threatened bloodshed is just to keep us watching, apparently. So unless you’re really into product placement and threadbare plots, you’re better off just putting this on in the background and listening to the song: a solid, piano-splashed breakup ballad with hip-hop swagger. Insert throaty ad-lib exhortation here.
