Skip to main contentWith a few notable exceptions, Portland hip-hop videos tend to follow a specific pattern: Show the MC rapping with various city landmarks in the background, repeat as long as necessary.
If you're ready for something completely different, here's a new clip from Dylan Muldrew, a.k.a. Zoo?, for "Nobody Loves a Genius Child," off the frustratingly hard-to-Google rapper's 2013 album, Osmosis Muldrew. I don't know if I can really explain this thing in a way that'll make sense. It's got a vaguely cultish feel, like something you'd run across on public access television at 3 am. There's pale, dead-eyed girls, ancient symbols, mysterious pills, body-painting, a creepy bird mask and Muldrew rhyming in a gold robe and boxer shorts.
The video is lensed by newly-formed production company Occulist, but a trip to their Web site does little to help figure out what's actually happening here (though you can see a few other awesome videos, including a new one from Maze Koroma, Zoo's crew-mate in Renaissance Coalition). Then again, some things are better experienced than solved—especially when it's this mind-warpingly dope. Word to Chance the Rapper: This is some real acid rap.
WWeek 2015