The eccentric Minnesotan rapper displays his potential once again in his latest music video
Getting your name out in the rap world can be difficult when you come from somewhere that’s not on most listeners’ radars. Hailing from Minnesota, Lerado Khalil overcomes this hurdle with a signature monotone flow that feels cool and detached. He dropped his second project, Mildly Happy, in June of this year, featuring largely short songs (only one track crosses the three minute mark) and an array of off-kilter beats. The tape is a brief but colorful excursion. His amateur status belies a real sense of professionalism in his output so far, both in his tracks and his visuals.
This is demonstrated perhaps more than ever in his new video for “Bro Nem,” a nice but from Mildly Happy. Directed by Will Tooke, the video matches the moody feel of the track but trades in its minimalism for a collage of precise and creative scenes. We see Khalil in a variety of positions: dancing in the dark with several masked men, drive-by pranking a group of enemies, and being tied up before releasing himself and smoking a joint with his captors (a sly That ‘70s Show reference). It’s full of personality and expertly shot.
The real highlight of the video comes in the first 30 seconds. A woozy camera pan shows an empty stage before Khalil slinks out from behind the curtains to crouch in the spotlight and deliver some bars to what sounds like an excited audience. A brief cut shows that the entire room is empty with no audience to be found. The rest of the video follows. Sure, he’s an underdog, but he doesn’t seem to notice.