Luton’s BXKS blends herself with a virtual world on the trippy new video for “This Don’t Boom”, using assured lyricism as a medium for transformation.
UK artist BXKS is part of an artistic mesh that merges fashionably creative presentation and heartfelt music. At times it’s hard to tell where an individual’s core belongs when their being is so lyrical and music so designed, but BXKS strikes a nice balance. She’s in the process of becoming pure media, but swings bars like “Fuck the gov, I’m not here for politics I hold the licks” to ground herself in real life. Her new video for “This Don’t Boom” goes for the former approach, as director Joel Matheui sets up frantic visual “antics”.
BXKS grip on various aesthetics is skilful, she swings a subtle UK drill flow in one hand and hangs from the 90s patchwork of modern American trap with the other. Look at the comic book packaging of BXKS’ mixtape “Full Time Daydreamer”, or the Instagram page where she self-labels as a ‘Video Game’. On “Must Feel”, also from “Daydreamer”, she hops into a pitched-down autotune slide from a clicky rap flow, with sound effects adding a golden 8-bit touch. While singular, “Boom” is surrounded by some seriously versatile context. In the video she’s a mobile presence, pushing head-first towards the camera before splitting into three as if to personify her various artistic states.
Static is a recurring motif and recalls white noise, the sound that contains all frequencies, alongside BXKS flickery and even cadence. “Boom” is an audiovisual confirmation, demonstrating the confidence that makes BXKS hit so hard through such a restrained tone She keeps her voice low and her lyrics finely woven because she knows that when the two converge the sound will speak for itself. Here it certainly does. In fact each line compounds the weight of the last, until the verses seem to balance atop the listener’s head. The song’s best bar, “When I die a legend I’ll be skanking up in heaven”, flies with the energy of sparks and the agility of angel wings.
Watch the video for “This Don’t Boom” here.
Follow BXKS on Twitter, Instagram, Soundcloud, Spotify and Apple Music.
– Jamie (Staff @108MICS)
108 MICS 