Tag Archives: Noisey

NABIL x JAMES BLAKE + CHANCE THE RAPPER

by

FLATCAPS . AND . SNAPBACKS

Director: Nabil

Original Feature in: Promo News

You can tell who the best music video directors are pretty quickly. Like with many art forms having the most interesting concepts is key and then knowing how to execute them in a way no one else can; priceless. Nabil is that person. Each project is individual. They stand alone yet within themselves are cohesive. It is this talent that has encouraged artists such as Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Bon Iver and Foals to repeatedly employ Nabil. You just don’t know what you will get.

In this case the contrast of the English countryside and an American low rider set the tone matching the collaborative clash of James Blake and Chance the Rapper on Life Round Here. Somalian pirates, booty shakers and a priest walk onto set. Although it sounds like a joke, it’s just another day in the life of Nabil. We were lucky enough to catch up with Nabil and find our what drives him to succeed, his thought process for this project, and what track he wants to work on next with James Blake…

WORD IS CHEAP: You’ve worked with James Blake before, did that make it a lot smoother process this time round?

NABIL: Yeah it definitely helped.  We got along well on the last one and I think because he was happy with that process it definitely created some trust.  Plus we go out for pints in London town which helps.

Did shooting in the rain affect your plans at all?

A lot of factors that day affected the shoot – a short day with Chance, hitch problems on the loader, rain…  But somehow it all came together and we worked with what we could – which was about an eight-hour shoot.

You openly love juxtapositions, did the genre-crossing nature of the track influence you when creating the concept for the video in this case?

Definitely. I had Chance and James in London for one day, so I thought lowrider, English countryside, black and white, black and white, and a little more black and white. Put it all together and see what happens..

All your work is diverse. Would you say individuality is important in your approach to creating a promo?

I would say there is nothing particular to my approach except I want to make something awesome! And make people think… Sometimes they don’t turn out as awesome, but that drives me to out-awesome the last one, which also doesn’t always work… That’s my approach.

I really like how shooting in black & white ties the surreal situations together, almost making them normal, was that the aim? 

Sounds good to me! Thanks.

Going from eerie cliffs to falcon riding low riders – so is there a trilogy in the pipeline for Nabil x James Blake? 

I would love that.. I want to do a video for Our Love Comes Back. Thanks for the motivation Luke!

EDOUARD SALIER x METRONOMY

by

THE . CATS . REPRESENT

Director: Edouard Salier

Ridiculous. Simply ridiculous. Star signs, astronomy, horoscopes, mysticism, divination all wrapped up into one four-minute masterpiece. What does it all mean? I’m not comparing Edouard Salier’s work to Shakespeare but I can imagine GCSE kids all over the country coming up with all kinds of theories around what it all means:

“The cats keep watch in a menacing manner to represent society’s oppressive control over the individual. This is reinforced by their robotic features, their lack of hair and red eyes much like CCTV at present. They are simply an extension of those that rule, an impurrfect tool, as perimeters are breached. This time curiousity killed the spaceman”. Probably get a B-minus too.

Edouard Salier is the typical kind of artist you expect from the French, kind of crazy, kind of cool. I’m surprised he doesn’t have an accent in his name. Self described as: “Director, graphic artist, designer, and photographer” he forgot to mention ‘talented mother-fucker’. Repping the (new-ish) cool kids on the block Somesuch & Co in the UK is the stamp of approval you don’t need to see, they only rep serious talent, he is obviously serious talent. Keep expecting big things. A feature-length even.

UPDATE:

JAMIE DELANEY x REJJIE SNOW

by

SCH**LKIDS.IN.PARIS

Director: Jamie Delaney

Interview Published by: Promo News

Rapper’s delight in this rap fantasy to real-life promo. Like any boy Rejjie dreamed of balling during the mandatory school trip to the French capital. Unlike every other school kid his meteoric rise in the rap game has created a self-fulfilling prophecy, a story retold by Jamie Delaney. With a real European vibe throughout, further emphasised by the streets of Paris, juxtaposition reigns as Rejjie channels street culture meets high fashion, Hermes meets La Haine.

Although on the surface the latest collaboration seems far from similar to the adventurous “Lost In Empathy” promo, the fundamentals are all the same. Style at the forefront, or rather, stylishly exploiting Rejjie in his environment. Whether he’s in the countryside or the city the performance exudes confidence, it’s easy to see that these two Irishmen bring out the best in each other.

Having recently signed to Somesuch & Co Jamie is on a high. We caught up with him as he explained his thoughts behind style, why Paris made sense and his interpretaion of Rejjie’s lyrics.

WORD IS CHEAP: Having worked with Rejjie before did you know you would collaborate again?

Jamie Delaney: I knew Rejjie wanted to do something, but I didn’t know when, where or how. I was meant to do something a few months prior to shooting this video but it fell through.

Your first project with Rejjie was shot in the wilderness, was it a conscious choice to portray him in a city environment?

Yeah because of the first video being shot in the wilds I really wanted to do this one in an urban environment, just to flip it out, the lyrics made a city seem a natural place to set it.

What influenced your decision to shoot in Paris?

It’s about a kid on a school tour, who is day dreaming about living his rap fantasy so for this we needed to set it somewhere outside the UK and Ireland.

The story circles around a then and now situation, how did you come up with the concept?

The concept of the video is built around the lyrics of the track, which in a tongue and cheek way, are quite boastful. They play and subvert the typical clichéd lyrics in rap music. 

With the video I wanted to play with this idea, juxtaposing a montage of scenes from classic rap videos, with the reality of the character’s real life, which is a teenage kid on a school trip in Paris. He spends the entire time creating an alternate reality, where he plays out his rap fantasy, balling it in Paris.

How important is styling to you? It seems to play an important role within your projects with Rejjie.

Styling is really important, the characters having the right look is paramount, I think it can really make a character and a video stand out. People always remember the unusual print or the cool jacket, but I don’t like to go over the top with it, styling always has to fit with the character in a natural honest way, the artist should feel comfortable.

WORD IS CHEAP x HIATUS OVER

by

So you almost certainly haven’t noticed but Word Is Cheap has been on a little break. Lets be honest, if you could take a break you almost certainly would considering this weather. So I did. In this case that break was forced and according to a court of law should’ve been a minimum of 3-6 months. Suckers.

So its back. Here are a few of my favourites while I’ve been “away”:

TO.BE.CONFUSED

(watch this while wondering what its all about)

I.DRIVE.ISH

(watch this while putting on your Nike TNs. Seriously!?)

FUCK.SOCIETY.ASIANSTYLE

(watch this while crotch thrusting your beer. ah yeah)

NOW.MAKES.SENSE

(watch this while loading part 2)

CRAZY.RUSSIANS.BEING

(watch this while lol-ing about that dog out the window)

Normal service will resume next week. See you then.

VICE/NOISEY x ROMAIN GAVRAS x MIA

by

BEHIND.THE.SCENES

(watch this while wondering if Denis the lorry driver has a chance with the married mother MIA)

Far (far, far, far, far, far, far) from being VICE’s biggest fan (although their photo dumps are consistently facking fanny), I am a big fan of their incredibly well run Youtube account: Noisey. Noisey create a bunch of great content from around the world catching those events you missed (and were never ever going to get in to). Anyone that interviews Tempz on his views on London house prices is on to a winning thing as, IT IS SO JOKES!!

This behind the scenes video gives the fans exactly what they I want! A look at Romain, MIA, the incredibly unique stunt couple and the jokest, sincerest, north African old schoolers. All of this for my favourite video of the year so far! Genius.