Royal Blu releases ‘Hype’ visuals for brand-new track
Published:Saturday | May 16, 2020 | 12:13 AM
Neo-reggae and rap artiste Royal Blu and the inimitable illustrator Ikem Smith have gone back into the lab to concoct another psychedelic music video to add to their growing repertoires. With a premiere on Complex UK on Thursday, May 14, Hype is the next single and visual treatment by the young and fresh musical act, whose decidedly individual expression surely sets him apart from his contemporaries.
Produced by the Grammy-nominated prolific JLL, Hype comes as a precursor to Royal Blu’s upcoming full-length project, which is slated to be released this year.
Until that happens, Royal Blu is pleased to share this next zany addition. “I love the end product. Once again, a lot of the stuff that is in the video wasn’t actually there. As simple as me using the garbage bin and you see cats running, there were no cats when we were filming! Ikem edited all of that in,” Royal Blu told The Gleaner.
SELF ACCEPTANCE
Taking a similar approach to their first collaboration, Style & Pattern, which was released last summer, Royal Blu’s lyrics fed directly into Smith’s conceptualisation. “What the video concept ended up being, at its core, was a representation of the struggle of dealing with people’s perception of you, which is what Blu wrote the song about. I came to the conclusion that the song is about self-acceptance. It’s a challenge dealing with what others have to say, but it’s ultimately about you,” Smith said.
In the visual, a buffed-up version of Royal Blu takes on various challenger identities. “I might seem like a villain in this ‘game’, but I’m just a regular human being like everyone else. The idea Ikem had for the music video perfectly embodies that,” the artiste said.
Hype’s visuals were executive-produced by California-based label Delicious Vinyl Island. The clip is available for streaming via Royal Blu’s YouTube Channel.
Also available for streaming on his channel is a short documentary called Riddim & Blu. Directed by Yannick Reid, the mini-doc investigates Royal Blu’s production philosophies and concepts that combined to create Style & Pattern.