Dublin’s reigning rap king Rejjie Snow has been popping up on i-D for years now — it’s safe to say that we love him here. In the past, his tunes have been a staple feature of New Music Friday, and he’s sat down to chat to us about everything from weed brownies to how he’s found inspiration in the Blaxploitation movies of the 1970s. The way visual references seep into his gleaming brand of funk-spun hip-hop plays a key part in the formation of his musical style.
You can see that in his music video for Egyptian Luvr (feat. Aminé and Dana Williams), the Kaytranada-produced cut from his debut record Dear Annie that dropped earlier today. In it, Rejjie assumes the role of an extra-terrestrial on the run from the authorities in downtown Los Angeles, relying on his girlfriend to keep him in hiding. According to Rejjie, the song is about the last moments you spend with someone you love, so it’s apt that the video has a bittersweet ending: as he and his girlfriend cycle in tandem across the city and out into the sticks, Rejjie’s alien character beams up, narrowly avoiding the grasp of the cops.
A cinematic sci-fi love tale, there are drops of Stranger Things and E.T. in here. The film was directed by Martin C. Pariseau, who also helmed the dancing robot video for Kaytranada’s equally ace Lite Spots. It’s always nice when artists play a key part in the way their music reaches people visually, and for Rejjie (“I love to collab with directors and stylists, and bring those different worlds together”, he told us earlier this year), videos like this seem like more than a mere afterthought.