After the 2019 death of their activist leader, Omar Higgins, Chinese Connection Dub Embassy vowed to keep making making waves by making reggae. As the pandemic has burned and Black Lives Matter street protests raged, CCDE’s brothers Joseph and David Higgins have been playing at the demonstrations and prepping a new album with the help of producer Ryan Peel and rapper Webbstar. “We were actually in the middle of mixing another song, and I stopped in between and said, ‘I have to get this tune off my chest.'” says Joseph Higgins.
The song was “Dem A Callin (Flodgin)” which Joseph and Omar had co-written. “I brought him a template of the beat and he (Ryan) put the finishing touches on it and we recorded it right there in a few hours. Then we brought our guy Webbstar in on it and he just took the song to a whole other level.”
CCDE see themselves as part of the great reggae tradition of making liberation politics groovy. “During this time with COVID -19, police brutality, and just racism as a whole, we talk about what can we do as artists to bring awareness to these issues. We said, ‘Let’s use our gifts to express our emotions through music, because music is a weapon. Whether artists know it or not, our voice speaks louder than we think, and when we’re quiet, the narrative stands that we (artists) don’t care about social issues. Let’s just make some turn-up music and be on our way.”
David Higgins produced and David Yancy III directed the video, which Joseph says is “… giving off the energy that the only way we’re going to get through these times is together. And until we are treated as equals, the fight is never over. #BLM all day!”
Music Video Monday: Chinese Connection Dub Embassy
Music Video Monday is keeping it together in lockdown.
Memphis rapper Herion Young scored a major coup when he was signed to Future’s record label Freebandz. But just when it was time to get his second single for the label underway, the ‘rona hit. Young’s song “Sacrifices,” produced by Atlantean Mayhem, is relevant for these crazy times.
“Life shows you ups and downs,” Young says. “Sometimes you have to make sacrifices to get through the storm and fight for the sun to shine.”
Here’s the video, directed by Mike Garcia:
Music Video Monday: Herion Young
If you’d like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com
Faux Killas’ new video is just the rocket fuel you need to launch you out of the COVID blues. The giddy “Space Force” is a punky blast of chant-along lyrics and anti-grav beats. The video sees our plucky heroes fly to another world on a mission of conquest, only to go native for the promise of cheap astro-beer and cosmic craps. Will our cosmo-rock-nauts survive the first mission of the Space Force? Watch this to find out!
Music Video Monday: Faux Killas
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
The Memphis Flyer is proud to feature music videos from Memphis artists on Music Video Monday. Judging from the mind-bending difficulty of putting together this top ten list, 2019 was a good year. I scored the year’s videos on concept, song, look, and performance. Then, I shook my head at all the ties and did it all over again. It was so close, it was an honor just to be in the top ten, and I had to include three honorable mentions. Congratulations to all our winners!
C. Louise Page’s “Future Runaway Bride,” directed by Joshua Cannon and Barrett Kutas, will get you to the church on time, but what happens then is on you.
TOP TEN:
10. PreauXX – “Steak and Shake ft. AWFM”
The Unapologetic crew gets behind the counter of a sandwich joint in this video from director 35 Miles. This is one of those videos where you can just tell that everybody had a great time making it, and the fun is infectious.
Music Video Monday: Top Ten Music Videos of 2019
9. Uriah Mitchell – “Might Be”
Everything is wound up tight in Waheed AlQawasami’s video of a surreal night at the club with Uriah and his friends.
Music Video Monday: Top Ten Music Videos of 2019 (2)
8. Heels – “King Drunk”
Director Nathan Parten transforms Midtown into a D&D fantasia in this incredible animated video for Memphis’ hardest rocking duo.
Music Video Monday: Top Ten Music Videos of 2019 (3)
7. Talibah Safiya – “Healing Creek”
Director Kevin Brooks brought out Talibah Safiya’s beauty and charisma in this spiritual video, which won the Hometowner Music Video award at Indie Memphis 2019.
Music Video Monday: Top Ten Music Videos of 2019 (4)
6. Sweet Knives – “I Don’t Wanna Die”
Shannon Walton is outstanding as a stranded aviator in this video by director Laura Jean Hocking for the reunited veterans of the Lost Sounds, led by Alijca Trout.
Music Video Monday: Top Ten Music Videos of 2019 (5)
5. The Poet Havi – “Shea Butter (Heart of Darkness)”
Director Joshua Cannon and cinematographer Nate Packard took inspiration from Raging Bull for this banger from The Poet Havi, who clearly has more and better dancers than Martin Scorsese ever did.
Music Video Monday: Top Ten Music Videos of 2019 (6)
4. Impala – “Double Indemnity”
Director Edward Valibus and actress Rosalyn Ross created a heist movie in miniature for the kings of Memphis surf’s comeback record.
Music Video Monday: Top Ten Music Videos of 2019 (7)
3. John Kilzer – Hello Heart
Memphis lost an elder statesman of music this year when John Kilzer tragically passed away in January. Director Laura Jean Hocking created this tone poem in blue for his final single.
Music Video Monday: Top Ten Music Videos of 2019 (8)
2. Al Kapone – “Al Kapeezy Oh Boy”
Director Sean Winfrey knows how large Al Kapone looms in Memphis music, and he finally blew the rapper up to Godzilla size in this video for one of Kapone’s best jams since “Whoop That Trick”.
Music Video Monday: Top Ten Music Videos of 2019 (9)
1. Louise Page – “Harpy”
When this one dropped in October, MVM called it “an instant classic.” Animator Nathan Parten transformed Louise Page into a mythological monster and sending her off to wreak havoc on Greek heroes. Don’t feel sorry for Odysseus. He got what he deserved. Memphis, look upon your best music video of 2019:
Music Video Monday: Top Ten Music Videos of 2019 (10)
If you would like to see you music video on Music Video Monday, and maybe in the top ten of 2020, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com. Happy New Year!
It’s Thursday, but Music Video Monday has a world premiere from The Pop Ritual.
MVM was double booked this week, which is a good thing because it means there’s a lot of music videos being produced in Memphis right now. Bluff City industrial masters Colin Wilson, Michelle Karl, and Scott Nivens of The Pop Ritual are dropping their new record It Sheds Again on Friday, Dec. 20., and MVM has the first video, “All The Black Hearts”.
“Light is easier to see in the dark,” says Wilson. “It is here in this chamber of rituals that psychedelic explorers must shed their old selves to be born again, encountering an eternal beast that resides within us all.”
Music Video Monday on Thursday: The Pop Ritual
If you would like to see your music video on Music Video Monday, no matter what day it’s actually published, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com
Your columnist is a day late, but Daykisser isn’t a dollar short. The Memphis band will drop their new album Selfhood on Saturday, December 14th, with a party at B-Side. The video for the first single “Dishes In The Sink” was directed by Noah Miller. It features some eye candy in the form of sweet stop motion and the band moving into an invisible apartment. Check it out:
Music Video Monday on Tuesday: Daykisser
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Stephen Chopek, Memphis’ favorite one-man minimalist music video auteur, is back with a song about putting in the emotional work to overcome past traumas. If that makes “Dig a Well” sound like work itself, well, it’s not. It’s a lovely, lilting melody that will beautify your morning.
Of the video which sees Chopek letting go of the past in a very literal way, he says, “Old letters feed the fires that keep us warm.”
Music Video Monday: Stephen Chopek
If you would like to see your music video on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Music Video Monday won’t leave you at the altar — unless you deserve it.
The would-be hubby from Louise Page‘s new video, “Future Runaway Bride,” certainly deserves pre-spousal abandonment. He’s swigging from a pocket flask even while the father of the bride, played by Lucero’s fezzed-out Brian Venable, looks on. The nerve!
The video to accompany yet another banger by Page was co-directed by Joshua Cannon and Barrett Kutas, and shot by Sam Leathers and Nate Packard.
If you need more Weezy in your life, you can either pop the question — which, in the light of this video, seems like an iffy proposition — or can check out her NPR Tiny Desk Concert, which gives you more short-term reward with less long-term commitment.
Now get to the church on time!
Music Video Monday: Louise Page
If you’d like to see your video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Music Video Monday wishes you a happy Independence Day!
Bruce Newman, best known as DJ and host of WEVL’s Folk Song Fiesta radio show, is also a singer/songwriter himself. His first music video is in the finest folk tradition of dissent and protest.
“’Reality Star’ was written as an observational commentary on the current leadership of our great country, with hope and prayer that this, too, shall pass,” Newman says.
The video is directed by Laura Jean Hocking and stars Billie Worley as…well, you’ll see.
Music Video Monday: Bruce Newman
If you would like to see your music video on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com
This moodily lit video for “Moves” by hip hop artist K. Reese is some eye candy. Director Daniel R. Ferrell and cinematographer Jason Thibodeaux crush the blacks and light with creamy neon to give K. Reese’s ode to cruising at night a perfect video setting.
Music Video Monday: K. Reese
If you’d like to see your music video on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
