Just about every month, we run down the most unforgettable clips and celebrate artists who are breaking ground with their visuals.
7. Raveena: “Tweety”
Directors: Raveena and Chris Cadaver
In the video clip for her breezy R&B tune “Tweety,” New York singer-songwriter Raveena shrinks herself down to the measurement of a spoon and wanders by way of a greenscreen Y2K dreamscape. Surrounded by trippy pastels, she dials on a clear landline phone, plays “Tweetster” on a floral plastic mat, and sits on a bean bag chair in knee-high boots and a sculpted updo. The cheeky visuals are relaxing in a nostalgic way—at just one issue, Raveena descends a sweeping staircase that qualified prospects to a nonetheless pool of h2o, an picture that glows and loops like a throwback screensaver.
6. Megan Thee Stallion: “Cry Baby” [ft. DaBaby]
Director: Colin Tilley
Indeed, this is Megan Thee Stallion’s fourth visual appearance in this column in the last 6 months. And of course, it is nonetheless entirely warranted. “Cry Baby” is admittedly not the finest track from last year’s Superior Information, but this Toy Tale riff makes it exponentially much better. Functioning with “WAP” director Colin Tilley at the time again, Megan casts herself and DaBaby as dolls who occur to everyday living in a toy shop just after hours, with the express objective of obtaining with each and every other. There are Incredibly hot Wheels going all around in manic loops and latex seems galore. No one particular else is doing bizarro, R-rated variants on childhood favorites like Megan.
5. Chloe x Halle: “Ungodly Hour”
Director: Alfred Marroquín
In Chloe x Halle’s movie for the title track from their 2020 album, the duo offer a darkly decadent excursion back to the vaguely cybernetic surroundings explored in their previous handful of clips. Established in neon-drenched open areas, shallow pools, and an inexplicable server room, “Ungodly Hour” capabilities adequate retro-futuristic android seems to be and elaborate headdresses to give Fritz Lang a operate for his funds. The luxuriant clip feels like a victory lap, capping off an era with Afrofuturistic flair.
4. Victoria Monét: “F.U.C.K.”
Director: Kee Hwang
In this homage to Westerns, R&B singer Victoria Monét performs the Jaguar, a lawbreaker on the operate for committing, what else, “crimes of shameless, bamboozling sexuality.” When she strolls into a sleepy saloon putting on a bedazzled cowboy hat and using tobacco a wood pipe, Monét sets in motion a cat-and-mouse chase with a masked bounty hunter. “F.U.C.K.” features just sufficient cinematic twists and turns to preserve you guessing who’s really on Monét’s side—plus an ending that begs for a female-gang sequel with loads extra bamboozling.
3. Cardi B: “Up”
Director: Tanu Muino
If there’s 1 factor Cardi B will definitely do, it is transform a audio video into a playground for orgiastic visuals dripping in high fashion. Her latest is no exception: From stomping on a grave marked “R.I.P. 2020” in her Louboutins to rapping with severed Barbie doll heads tangled in her teased-up hair, Cardi keeps the superior-femme, playful imagery at an all-time large. The greatest look has her carrying a around-nude bodysuit and a mask, sprawled out on a translucent chair held up by a bare person on his abdomen. It is a consummate snapshot of Cardi: so confidently in command that it seems to be like an honor just to be her home furnishings.
2. Tkay Maidza: “KIM” [ft. Yung Baby Tate]
Director: Adrian Yu
An official ability position of Tkay Maidza’s impersonations of well-known Kims in this amazing video: 5) Raging out on a motorcycle to the bass-rattling chorus as Kim Kardashian in the “Bound 2” video clip (bonus points for changing Kanye with a crash-take a look at dummy) 4) shaking it at a photoshoot as Kardashian yet again, recreating the “Break the Internet” PAPER magazine protect 3) suggest-mugging when decked out in the bright-crimson wig and designer threads Lil’ Kim wore in the 1997 “Crush on You” movie 2) strolling down a faux VMAs pink carpet in Lil’ Kim’s legendary purple jumpsuit and pastie 1) flexing as an extremely-stylish version of the cartoon character Kim Feasible (with Yung Little one Tate as eco-friendly villainess Shego), cutting as a result of a town with her encounter on each and every billboard.
1. Bomba Estéreo: “AGUA”
Directors: Jhoy Suárez and Liliana “Li” Saumet
Colombian electro-cumbia team Bomba Estéreo returned after a 4-12 months break last month with “AGUA,” from a forthcoming thought album about the Earth’s 4 aspects. The track is designed all-around Colombian and Canadian songwriter Lido Pimienta and Afro-Cuban group OKAN’s harmonized vocals, with handclaps, synths, and fowl calls commingling to evoke the organic earth in concert with o
ur own. The online video matches the song’s swaying intensity with an astounding, psychedelic journey into the wilds of Colombia. Co-directed by Jhoy Suárez and the band’s singer, Liliana “Li” Saumet, the clip drops you from majestic drone photographs of lush mountains to a ritual among personified elemental spirits, each individual of them adorned with distinctive flowers, physique paint, and crops. As a result of its stunning makeup and vivid pops of colour, “AGUA” is a thoughts-altering visual that sinks you into nature in surreal design and style.