This article originally appeared on i-D UK.
“GAZI is the invisible world,” A.CHAL says over the video for new single “Cuanto.” “When all the material, all the money, all the people talking, all the fame — when all that’s gone, GAZI still remains. Close your eyes, feel it in your soul. GAZI doesn’t die. GAZI is love.”
Peruvian-born, LA-based artist and producer Alejandro Salazar, aka A.CHAL, has been banging on about GAZI since he named his debut mixtape Welcome To Gazi back in 2016. “The inspiration of the visual has to do with what GAZI is: first/second generation immigrants trying to figure it out in a new society with new norms,” he told us over email. “We were inspired by a group of notorious young bandits from Peru known as the Pirañatias, as well as visuals of Pirañas eating goldfish. Symbolically it’s the underdogs trying to survive by any means, even if looked down on by everyone around.”
Shot by longtime i-D pal Dexter Navy, it riffs on documentary style before becoming very clear that we’ve entered the director’s warped world in which street kids have razor sharp teeth and demon eyes. It’s a beautiful but disturbing video. “He’s not only a good friend of mine, but someone I highly respect artistically,” A.CHAL said of Dexter. “Once we agreed on the vision for the video, I let him go and do his own thing in Mexico. I think it’s cool that NAST or myself are not in the video, because the message of GAZI is much bigger than us. The end result is incredible.” Indeed it is. See for yourself below.
