A$AP Rocky premiered his new Dexter Navy-directed double feature, “Money Man” and “Put That on My Set,” at a screening in London on Friday. Now, the full 12-minute project has dropped online. Inspired by the gritty French drama La Haine, the short film is narrated by French-accented younger sister of club owner and drug kingpin ‘Money Man,’ Flacko’s associate in the fictional, troubled Butterfly Canal area: “where your dreams never become true.” The place is inhabited by gangsters and some children with grills on their teeth and black-eyes from a deathly drug created by infusing butterfly wings with scorpion venom. “He calls it a psychedelic getaway to a better place, but I know it only fuels their dreams of violence,” the girl says before her words play out in the film’s bleak conclusion. Filmed in North London, the clip features scenes in Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, and a feature from Skepta on second track “Put That on My Set.”
Vic Mensa has released a powerful new video for “16 Shots,” his song about the killing of 17 year old Laquan McDonald in 2014 by a white Chicago police officer, who has been charged with six counts of murder after a dash cam video was released showing him shooting the teenager 16 times. The film for “16 Shots” is an impassioned and justifiably angry comment on the issue of police brutality against black people. It begins with Mensa being kicked and beaten by three cops, and later shot at by a line up of police, leaving him riddled with bullets. It ends with the dash cam film of the killing of Laquan McDonald, with a voiceover explaining what is happening, how far away Laquan was from the officers when he was first shot (an entire lane of the road), and that the police officer emptied his gun after the teen was already on the ground. Watch the full film on Tidal.
Section Boyz won’t win any awards from feminists for their new track, but they are nominated for Best Hip Hop Act at the MOBOs. Their new clip for “Be Like Man” opens with a call to vote (they’re up against Little Simz, Giggs, Fekky, and Wretch 32). Over tense strings and a dark, thudding beat, the South London grime crew rap about how nice their shoes are and how their imitators will never match up.
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Text Charlotte Gush