When DoNormaal says that “time is only an enemy for those with weak minds” on her new single “Buckle,” it’s tempting to hesitate for a moment. Almost everything about the song — and it’s accompanying video, which we’re premiering today — seems to suggest otherwise. DoNormaal’s cadence pulses with the anxiety of ancestral responsibility, while the beat swings in a pendulum motion, courtesy of producer Brakebill. But there is a moment, somewhere among the mantra-like repetition of the chorus, where the line’s intention snaps into focus and the rich, psychedelic strength of DoNormaal’s time peeks its way through.
“Unorthodox ways of being, thinking, and looking has fragmented my existence into something that feels both singular and very much of the whole entire world,” she tells i-D. “I am in pieces and also such a solid and unique mood.”
The song’s video, which was directed by Joey Chriqui, illustrates a liminal space of sorts. Most of the clip hones in on DoNormaal under a spotlight, answering to an unseen, interrogative audience. It’s interspersed with Rukiya McCormick’s dance moves, which add a certain contrasting fluidity.
“My music is a stream of subconsciousness, always, with a little paranoid delusion and fragmented thinking. I am a notorious dissociator, and everyone in my life has felt the impact of me suddenly not being there,” DoNormaal explains. “I disappear, smack dab in the middle of conversations, in the middle of anything. I wrote this song from that place.” Watch the music video below, and be sure to listen to the Seattle rapper’s Third Daughter LP, which i-D premiered in its entirety last July.