Omar Apollo dropped “Ice Slippin” last week and explained the vulnerable meaning behind the single, which will be housed on his forthcoming Live For Me EP due out on October 6.
“‘Ice Slippin’ is about reliving the thoughts I had passing through my mind the winter I came out to my family,” the Ivory artist said in a statement. “Receiving cold judgment as opposed to the acceptance I felt I deserved. This song is a reflection and reaction of all the emotions I had to face before and after I decided to leave the icy streets of Indiana.”
The “Ice Slippin” video premiered on Thursday morning, August 31, and viscerally illustrates precisely what Apollo felt.
The Rubberband-directed video starts with the message, “SORROW YOU’VE TAKEN THE FORM OF MY SKIN CAN I LEAVE MY BODY BEHIND?” It cuts to Apollo, examining his body and skin in its barest forms, including a sonogram and X-ray images of the brain. He sings while naked in an ice water, “If I’m being honest / If I said what I said, would you hate me? / Would you hate me?”
Spliced throughout are throwback photos and videos from Apollo’s adolescence — a time before he had to worry about whether his purest self would be accepted.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cwndwh4O2hQ/
Around the release of “Ice Slippin,” Apollo announced Live For Me by posting the cover art on Instagram with the caption, “4 songs that I hold very close to me. Portrait painted by [Doron Langberg].”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CwVChJLOze8/
Apollo opened on SZA’s SOS Tour earlier this year, which will stage a second North American leg through September and October. He will open on select dates of Daniel Caesar’s Superpowers World Tour this fall.
Watch the “Ice Slippin” video above.
Live For Me is out 10/6 via Warner Records. Find more information here.
Omar Apollo is a Warner Music artist. .
