Video! The ILLZ - "Dreams of Life & Beth"

Who the fuck else in hip-hop right now could pull something like this off? If you want to stand out, you need to be different. Do something that other people aren’t doing, right? A lot of hip-hop artists don’t get that. The ILLZ gets it. He brings a heaviness to his music and visuals that this genre is missing. I’m feeling it.

Synopsis by Filmmaker, Kristopher Rey-Talley:

When The ILLZ approached me about the “In Between Video series”, I was struck by the simple brilliance of it all. Releasing video and song simultaneously, as one piece of content, was a bold and strong move. I signed on immediately, and within a few days, we began shooting the first few videos. Simple, often low concept, but brimming with ILLZ insistence on cinematic imagery.

With “Dreams of Life & Beth”, I decided to go with a very cold, morbid look. The song is introspective and haunting, and I wanted to convey that through a simplistic set of visuals. Shooting on the Manhattan bridge at 5:30 am, we got that clean ambient light, and complete desertion. Everything was shot on long lenses, creating a sense of deep space and complete loneliness. The video is a mood piece, low on concept but high on artistry and emotion. It is but the first chapter in a varied, complex and beautiful set of upcoming videos, one unlike that of any artist I’ve worked with thus far.

Related: More from The ILLZ on Pigeons and Planes

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