Best Music Videos of the Month

Director(s): Nathan R. Smith and D.R.A.M.

D.R.A.M.'s Virginia roots are front and center in the video for "$." It's a home video/present day hybrid, and the archival footage from this childhood is no less adorable than what we'll see from Chance the Rapper. But instead of family matters, the grainy videos document D.R.A.M.'s love of singing, which has apparently existed from day one.

The neighborhood stroll is an excellent precursor to what will surely be a big year for the singer and his new friends. In addition from this Donnie Trumpet feature, D.R.A.M. is currently on tour with Chance and The Social Experiment.

Director: Truman & Cooper

After MØ and Diplo set the world aflame with "Lean On," it was only a matter of time before the two linked up again. "Kamikaze" is the first single off the Scandinavian singer's album, and Diplo once again handles production.

The bouncy beat recently received an equally upbeat visual treatment. The video was shot in Ukraine's Kiev, and it immediately recalls the automotive insanity of M.I.A.'s "Bad Girls" video. MØ and her cohorts wheel around empty junkyards and vacant lots with reckless abandon, a death-defying stunt that MØ said is at the heart of the song:

“What I really like about this video is that it embraces both those aspects: the party vibe—the friendships and the happiness—but also the darkness, the craziness and the doom."

Director(s): Jake Linden and Austin Vesely

Chance the Rapper’s admiration for Kanye West is well-documented, but his rework of 2004’s “Family Business” is one of the most beautiful byproducts of this fandom to date. The cover got a video this month that gets literal about the song's message, documenting Chano’s childhood antics alongside his recent history as a touring artist that sells out venues on both coasts.

Upon its release, “Family Business” was Kanye taking a look back at his long journey to that point. Chance follows suit, addressing his family directly—particularly his newborn daughter—to remember how far he's come, and how much more there is to go.

Director: Shomi Patwary

DP and his gritty rhymes had reason to celebrate this month: the Virginia rapper signed to 300 Entertainment and dropped the video for his breakout single, "Jabar."

The Shomi Patwary-directed clip features the day-to-day machinations of a drug dealer, examined in unforgiving detail. While it's a trope that's been told many times over, DP and Patwary have a great eye for detail—the coke dust, crinkled dollar bills, and rubber gloves—these moments give the proceedings an eerily realistic bent, and it's hard to look away.

Director: Daito Manabe & TAKCOM

When Nosaj Thing and Chance get together on a song, it always adds up to quality music. They first paired up on Acid Rap's “Paranoia,” and they didn't disappoint on “Cold Stares,” the followup featured on Nosaj Thing's Fated.

The song's glitchy, glacial production and reverential overtones manifest in unexpected ways for the video. We spend our time from a drone's POV, hovering above and around two hospital patients who are likely being treated for their sick dance moves.

The viewer is constantly tossed between two realities: we're either on the stage holding the dancers, or in a wire-framed digital landscape that maps the room's objects with chilling digital precision. It's innovative, more than a little spooky, and well worth the watch.

Director: Novelist

Part Nike tracksuit lookbook, part grime video, Novelist's "Endz" video directly references grime videos from the mid-2000s, from the lo-fi quality to the shaky Handycam shots to the locations. Classic grime production and a throwback video (both self-produced)—it's something Skepta did with great success on "That's Not Me"—and Novelist provides his own take here.

Welcome to the endz.

Director: Devonté Hynes

Dev Hynes has not forgotten the events that spurred him to write songs like "Do You See My Skin Through the Flames?" He has not changed his message, either—"Sandra's Smile" is an ode to Sandra Bland, the black woman found dead in her Texas jail cell after being arrested for a minor traffic violation.

The bittersweet ballad is accompanied by a black-and-white video shot on the streets of New York. It captures the city's vibrancy and industrial distance in equal measure: one second we're dancing on street corners, the next, enveloped by skyscrapers and endless traffic.

The video also features Ian Isiah, Junglepussy, and the dance collective Waffle Crew. They all follow Dev across NYC as he provides timeless sounds, classic R&B vibes with a modern message.

Director: Glassface

Opening with a Bruce Lee quote on how adapt and survive (hint: be like water), Tunji Ige decides to take a step back and close The Love Project with some gorgeous visuals for his breakout single, “Ball is Life.”

The video follows Tunji through open fields and inner-city claustrophobia, following a script barely visible on the frame's edges. This visual runs parallel to the journey Tunji has been having in real time, as he travels from his hometown towards stardom, constantly beset by the distractions that come with success.

It’s a crisp, thought-provoking visual with quite a few twists, including a cameo from new pal Dutchboy and a snippet of an unreleased song that had fans going crazy in the comments.

Director: Director X

The instantly-memeable Drake struck gold with his "Hotline Bling" video, even if it didn't get him that no. 1 Billboard spot he so coveted. That shouldn't take away from the video's success—it's been inescapable since its release, irresistible for Drake's awesome, nerdy dance moves and the sheer simplicity of its staging.

The soft lighting, warm pastels, and unhurried cool with which Director X and Drake executed this highly anticipated video is testament to the power of restraint, and a reminder that even if everyone's making fun of you, they're still talking about you.

Director: Tyler Mitchell

When Brockhampton entered and won a VFILES talent competition, part of their reward was a music video funded by Fool's Gold. They decided to use the time to mock the whole process: we follow Kevin Abstract, Romil, Merlyn Wood, and the rest of the squad throughout a very fancy photo shoot, complete with dressing rooms, synchronized outfits, and all the trappings of fame.

The group has been dropping solo and collaborative hits all year, but “Dirt” is the All-American Boyband reminding us that in the age of the internet, "selling out" can mean whatever you want it to.

Director: Colin Tilley

Kendrick Lamar linked up with "Alright" director Colin Tilley again. That phrase alone would warrant inclusion in this month's list, but "These Walls" has much more than that—namely, Terry Crews and Kendrick hitting the Quan together at a talent show. Hot fire.

But wait! There's even more to the eight-minute epic: jailhouse gossip, a labyrinthine house of women and weed, and dancing so intense that the titular walls collapse. It's the black comedy the opening title card promises, and another plaque for Kendrick's wall.

Director: Wolf Haley

Tyler’s another sure bet to make this list every time he releases a video. He has been killing the visual game for years, so much so that Kanye West straight up asked the Odd Future frontman to teach him how to make videos and called him a mentor while on his historic Yeezus run. “BUFFALO” is another example of this mastery.

The video starts with Tyler in full-body white paint, hanging from a tree. He looses himself from the noose only to be greeted by a riotous mob. He flees, stumbling away while addressing all of the sources of controversy in his career. He really covers it all in that verse, from the Mountain Dew commercials and his profane lyrical content to his role in streetwear brand Supreme's ascension and the hate he gets from Hopsin. There’s even a sarcastic jab at hip-hop purists who consider him an outsider of with no influence: “And while y’all n****s watching the throne, the throne be watching me.”

Then things flip: Tyler closes the video with a staticky talk-show clip which features a horrible wig and a performance of another very popular Cherry Bomb cut, “Find Your Wings.” It's weird, wonderful, and 100% Tyler.

Director: Grimes

The triumphant return of Grimes came all at once: we got two new songs, an amazing video, the album art, and tracklist all in a matter of tweets. But music is the most important part, and it doesn't disappoint: the two-song combination is a excellent new level for Grimes, with a feverishly danceable cut ("Flesh Without Blood") followed by some haunting, angelic atmospherics ("Life in the Vivid Dream").

The self-directed video is a luscious peek inside Claire Boucher's beautiful, twisted mind: callbacks to Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette and Terry Gilliam's Brazil are twisted into a blood-soaked narrative whose reasoning isn't quite clear...yet. But these are only the first two acts, and when Art Angels finally arrives, something tells me we'll be back in the clutches of the characters outlined here.