South African rapper-cum-producer FLVME has returned to the spotlight with his first visual offering for 2023. Snapping a nine-month period of quiet since ‘Somethin’ New’, the SAHHA-winning artist teamed up with Clout Cassette for his latest music video, ‘Let Me Down’. Taken from Germander II (2022), the Big Shark-directed music video features Milkiee, who portrays the rapper’s lover amid their dying romance.
As with every archetypal storyline of a failing love story, the music video begins with the Vosloorus-born muso walking away from his lover while she runs after him, seemingly trying to butter him up. Subliminal frames of her hopping into a car and getting cosy with another man punctuate the scenes of the two’s breakup.
After the twenty-three-year-old rapper has repelled her enough for her to get the message, she relents. While FLVME goes off and sits on his own with his head buried in his arms, the lady slumps down on a swinging bench.
The visuals utilise bright – but not obtrusive – lighting for easy transitioning between present moments (the couple fighting and breaking up) and sequences of memories from the good times they shared.
Moments range from FLVME and his love interest cuddling while taking pictures on the couch to a powder-blue-lit kitchen of them going through the motions together. Other shots include those of the semi-nude vixen posing seductively while the rapper performs and of the Candyman rapper playing pool and vibing with his crew. The music video closes with FLVME isolated while Milkiee sits forlornly at the park.
Although an overdone concept, the well-thought-out nostalgic colours used in conjunctions with the non-linear sequencing breathe fresher life to the age-old event of a breakup. The focus on their discomforted body language punctuated with flashing sequences of the past shaded the visuals with realism, giving it a three-dimensional aspect.
Hip hop, as a genre, is inundated with music videos where the artist is depicted as getting a cathartic release from a failed romance by indulging in strip clubs or drinking or smoking – or all of these. “Let Me Down” is a sincere facet of the motions one goes through amid a bitter split without trying to gloss over any details.
With an unconventional structure, flashbacks, and colour-coded use of lighting, “Let Me Down” doesn’t play out as a thoughtless video to accompany its song. There’s a story to it, and it’s in sync with the lyrical content from the first line.
Watch “Let Me Down” here:
