Leikeli47’s newest video, “OMC,” starts off with the best tease the mysterious emcee could have put in any visual. Cutting away at her trademark balaclava, it appears for a moment that she is finally about to reveal her face to the world, only to peel the mask away, exposing… another mask, this one made of bandanas, still covering her face, maintaining the illusion of anonymity for one more video at least. Hey, if MF DOOM can do it, why can’t she?
The “Miss Me” rapper who took over a New York City bodega in her last outing takes an old-school approach with the spare, but dynamic visual for “OMC,” shooting the video in stark black-and-white and rapping in a spartan, dimly-lit hallway and on an empty New York rooftop to convey the veiled menace of her declaration that “I don’t go out my circle — I don’t rock with you, homie.” The addition of marching band drummers from the aptly named Approaching Storm emphasizes the martial, hand-clapping beat, which sounds like a whole army of hoodrats stomping in Timberland boots coming to remove any and all haters swiftly and decisively from the paint.
Leikeli47’s debut album, Wash & Set, is due 9/8 via Hardcover/RCA Records, and as added promotion, the masked flame spitter will be performing on August 26th at Afropunk Festival in Brooklyn and on September 3rd at Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle.
