Two weeks ago, NLE Choppa shared his debut EP, Cottonwood, through his No Love Entertainment imprint and UnitedMasters. It arrived accompanied by a 10-minute short film, but the 17-year-old rapper has still been rolling out music videos to promote the project. Both "Matrix" and "Clic Clacc" have received visual treatments and now "Step" is joining the club.
The music video for "Step" is just as frenetic and unsettling as the beat over which NLE Choppa raps. He walks, dances and glides through a neon-lit school hallway, as he does across the beat. The fact that he's shirtless draws attention to the Death Row Records chain that shines around his neck. It's certainly a weird flex, given that the defunct label is now owned by the toy company, Hasbro, and has lost some of its threatening image. NLE Choppa may have been trying to align himself with the violent tactics employed by Suge Knight while running Death Row, which would be in theme with "Step". "I'm cruisin' down the block with some shottas, they be ready to step / Oppositions callin' the police, but it's never gon' help," Choppa raps on the hook. It's more likely that he was submitting himself into the lineage of great Californian rappers, alongside the likes of Snoop Dogg and Tupac.
