The animated music video, which was co-directed by Bill Plympton and West, expresses grayscale pencil-sketch animation. The two later collaborated to create Through the Wire: Lyrics and Illuminations, a graphic book filled with illustrations based on West's song lyrics. To visually reproduce the tone of "Heard 'Em Say," Plympton depicted West as a taxicab driver working in a bleak, fictional city who picks up troubled passengers and eventually comes across a young boy and his mother. The animated segments are intercut with live-action scenes of West and Levine performing the song.