When SPIN named Roc Marciano’s Reloaded one of our Best Albums of 2012 (and one of our Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2012), critic Jordan Sargent praised the way the New York rapper’s latest LP evokes film. That’s literal in the video for woozy reminiscence “76,” shot on eight-millimeter by director Jason Goldwatch, whose previous clients include Pusha T and Nas. The vintage medium’s textured ambience is all over the clip: Don’t bother adjusting the resolution for this unhurried footage of drinking, smoking, and wandering the streets of New York, because the grain is inherent. The track samples 10cc’s “I’m Not in Love,” which is noteworthy because that song was also originally rumored to be a possible source for “Feel It All Around” by Washed Out, who’s also no stranger to prematurely weathered blurriness. Recent Instagram kerfuffle aside, retro haze transcends genres these days; for instance, New York lo-fi popsters Friends‘ VHS-ready 2011 “I’m His Girl” clip — which has more than one million views — could be from the same time in the barely remembered past as “76,” in a different part of the same city. “Your future looks glum,” Roc raps, but the past is still tangibly present.
Roc Marciano Strolls Grainy, Vintage New York in ’76’ Video
