ScHoolboy Q’s recent trailer for his upcoming album, Blank Face, added new levels of hype to an already hyped up album. That trailer featured vivid imagery of a realistic neighborhood reminiscent of downtown Los Angeles, where Q grew up, showed a group of friends that soon transitioned into scenes of prison, leaving many to wonder if Q planned on a political slant to the new album.
His new music video for the song “By Any Means: Part 1” comes in at nearly 9 minutes long. The song itself doesn’t even show up until well over 5 minutes into the video. But quite a bit from that trailer comes from this video, which now has room to breathe to show the people and the neighborhood. The prison drama hasn’t appeared yet, but a picture has been painted and a story is possibly set into motion as we meet Q and company, walking outside and then quickly running from a police car, smoking weed in someone’s house and driving around the neighborhood.
The song kicks in, and Q raps as it cuts back and forth between him and his crew walking down the street and them hanging out on a porch. Throughout the song, the color changes drastically. People and places become black and white, until suddenly we cut back to the original crew pulling up in front of a pawn shop late at night. The video is to be continued, suggesting Q is creating a full story with his videos and his album, similar to his labelmate Kendrick Lamar.
Blank Face comes out July 8.