"WHAT I KNOW" directed by Ivan Ives | from GREAT EXPECTATIONS (download) | featuring Sum | song produced by Becoming Phill
The approaches we took to this song and video were clearly very simple. There's no complex storyline or contact lenses to make us look like supernatural blowfishes. There's no elaborate costumes, curvaceous women or flocks of nameless dudes standing around and sitting on cars. The song structure is far from revolutionary, and the verses are as straightforward as it gets. There aren't any swimming pools, umbrellas, blunts or barbeque pits. Matter of fact...there's not really anything besides two dudes rapping in the fucking desert. Two dudes who are extremely good at what they do, rapping over a beat done by a producer who's very good at what he does (BecomingPhill). It's a simple video shot by a rapper who's fast becoming a rising star director (Ivan Ives). There's not much to it besides the bare bones of the craft and a message delivered with all the peaceful desperation of samurais doing what they does best; going for what they know as if they're about to die and nothing else mattered. As simple as this song and video are, I think it's a major statement and a foreshadow of what you're about to see from our camp over the next couple of years. Those of us who've been patiently waiting in the wings perfecting our techniques, getting more deadly with each passing year are finally ready to arrive. There won't be any question about our music savvy, our access to resources, our global brotherhood or where we stand in relation to everyone else. We're in our own lane, and although it took us a while to pave it, we're rolling thunder down the highway. Going for what we know is the mantra. When Ivan hit us up on a Monday and told us the only chance we had to shoot a video for this song was on that Saturday morning in Vegas, it was clear what we had to do. Plus, I'd never been to Vegas....so what better way to make my debut than on some rap shit? Malkovich wouldn't take my "maybe, but I'll be tired as hell" for an answer, and off we went on one of my favorite musical excursions to date; shooting a video in what was clearly a former bomb-testing site while our camera crew caught heat strokes and tried to hydrate themselves with poached eggs. And here we have it, a video embodying an unofficial mission statement for 2012 and beyond. -Sum
