Given the career that Sampha‘s already had, it’s hard to believe that he’s never released a full-length album. The London-based singer-songwriter has worked with everyone from Drake to Beyonce to Frank Ocean and back, but he’s never dropped an LP of his own material. But if Sampha has any first-timer jitters, he’s certainly not showing it. “Blood on Me” — his first-ever music video as a solo artist — looks like the work of a seasoned veteran.
Sampha comes out of the gate strong quite literally in this visual split between an abandoned greyhound track, a wheat field and the upper branches of a tree with a car — and the singer — lodged in its branches. As if three distinct locations and trained animals wasn’t enough for a rookie artist, the video also features some crazy special effects work as Sampha is consumed by the tree and many, many slo-mo shots of the wrecked car becoming dislodged. The whole Alex Lill-directed clip is as beautiful and haunting as the track it accompanies. Check it out up top.
There’s still no word on when the singer’s debut album Process will drop, but you should probably clear your schedule just to be ready when it does.
