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Video Premiere: Antwon’s ‘Living Every Dream’

Antwon/ Photo by Alix Black

Back In March, Antwon teamed up with director Brandon Tauszik for “Helicopter.” Seamlessly mixing the stalwart, dudes-hanging-out-and-drinking-40s formula, with footage from the Steve McQueen movie Bullitt, and a hilarious scene of the San Jose rapper pouring hot sauce all over his waffles, I called it an “early candidate for video of the year.” And it still is, right up there with M.I.A.’s “Bad Girls,” whose budget was undoubtedly hundreds of times more than “Helicopter.” Antwon’s video helped highlight what the website GOOD called “The Hidden Economics of Oakland’s Rap Bohemia,” and how, through a series of favors, goodwill, and a D.I.Y. spirit that’s coursing through a lot of excellent, weird rap right now, a video of this caliber was done on the cheap and was able to find a significant audience.

For their latest collaboration, “Living Every Dream,” the first single off End Of Earth, Antwon and Tauszik went down to Los Angeles over a three-day weekend to match the early’-90s house-tinged party vibe of Pictureplane’s beat, which samples the DNA remix of Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner.” The smeary videotape quality makes “Living Every Dream” seem like some West Coast rap clip from 1993 that was submitted to The Box, but just now unearthed and shown to the world. Antwon, stoic as ever, raps about his work-a-day take on blowing money fast (“Oceanic youth, afraid to stay up late / White ladies in my nose, interracial date, Bristol / I’m ballin’ with my tongue out / At Thriftown with a bill about to dumb out”) and drops some style tips (“Tight pants with the boots, because I ain’t playing”), as choreographed dancers get down around him. By the way, was that a double #hashtag rap? Also, look out for producer Pictureplane, carrying around a giant neon ball and sporting a refixed Disney shirt that now says, “DIE.”

Watch the video for Antwon’s “Living Every Dream,” directed by Brandon Tauszik and produced by Sprinkle Lab, below. And check back on Tuesday for an exclusive stream of Antwon’s End Of Earth mixtape.