It seems like these days that it’s simply not enough to just drop an album. If you want to get people’s attention, you’ve got to give them a far more immersive experience than thirty minutes to an hour’s worth of new music. While there’s long been a history in the music industry of expansive video project related to single songs or records — Kanye West’s “Runaway” video, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” Prince’s Purple Rain film to name a few — ever since Beyonce unleashed her self-titled album near the end of 2013 that came with a video for every song, the deployment of supplemental visuals has become incredibly pervasive.
Beyonce perfected the idea last year with her fully visual album Lemonade that debuted on HBO, and since then, music artists have dipped further and further into the visual realm to flesh out the concepts of their sonic projects. Beyonce’s husband Jay-Z has taken to rolling out a series of what he calls “footnotes” related to his confessional record 4:44. Now Meek Mill has gotten in on the action.
Beginning with a short titled, Chapter One: The Rebirth, the Philly rapper appears to be channeling his own rise from the hood in a series of gorgeously shot, incredibly cinematic clips, all related to his new album titled Wins And Losses that’s set to drop this Friday, on July 21. Meek hasn’t announced a timetable for when the videos will show up or how many we can expect to receive, but judging by the first one alone, it’s going to get pretty deep.
The three-minute long clip opens with a man racing through a hospital — watch close and you’ll see Wale in a quick cameo — searching desperately for someone named Alicia King. He ultimately finds her just as she’s giving birth to a newborn. As he watches through the window, Meek rolls in and starts dropping bombs like, “Trump ain’t feeling us / Cops still killing us / N—-s taking shots can’t stop me, they ain’t real enough / Cut her off, act like she dead and it’s killing her.”
While it remains a mystery where Meek plans to pick up the story next, the footage he’s already assembled is compelling to say the least, and for me anyway, stokes a greater degree of interest in hearing what he has to say on his next project. Then again, isn’t that the point?
Watch the trailer for the film below.
