A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie is a rapper on the rise but, in his latest music video, he sinks to the bottom - of the ocean.
The young rapper has collaborated with the Rite Brothers for the visual that accompanies his single "Drowning," a track that is off of his new album The Bigger Artist. Channeling much of the same vibe that James Cameron once brought to the big screen with the diving footage for the film Titanic, the camera darts in and around the wreckage of a ship, before a grand piano is suddenly plunged into the murky depths of the ocean. After that, the video takes on this strange hybrid of sorts, combining some well-worn tropes of the rap visual with some darker, more stylized elements. The wads of cash are still flying through the air (albeit way slower) and the bling is still being showed off to the camera, but the most impressive feat is how seamlessly they cut together the shots of Boogie spitting his bars while completely submerged. Certainly they wouldn't have been able to have him lip synch to his lyrics for extended periods of time while underwater like that, but the gimmick eventually blends into the cinematic vibe of the video overall and, from a visual standpoint, is totally compelling to watch.
The proceedings drag a little once you get past the halfway point, with a news report sequence that gives the drowning portion of the video a backstory stopping any momentum the visual had gained up to that moment dead in its tracks. It's not like it's totally awkward, but it definitely feels slightly out of place. Also, even though Kodak Black appears as the featured artist on the track, he's nowhere to be found in the video itself. Overall, it's an ambitious and, looks-wise, pretty cool take on the premise of the song. It also may signal the beginning of a rapper in Boogie that may continue to offer up some dazzling visual answers to his studio tracks. With some nice strides made on his new album, at this point the sky is unquestionably the limit for this young emcee.
