NYC Trip: Alex Mali Music Video

NYC Trip Blog Series

Part 6: Alex Mali Music Video

Read Part 5 here

This is the final blog in the series; Following my last adventure to Carl Navy’s Photo exhibition, I met Alex Mali who invited me to her reggae inspired music video. Being of Jamaican descent, she decided to move away from her usual R&B sound and created a track called ‘Hoity Toity’ ft Melo X(who is also of Jamaican heritage) which is a fusion of 90’s Dancehall/Reggae sounds. With that in mind she wanted her music video to reflect just that. 

After a long bus ride from Queens to Canarsie, Brooklyn by way of Manhattan I finally arrived to the street for the address given to me. 

• Side note am I the only one who finds it annoying that you can’t travel via public transportation to the different Boroughs of New York without going through Manhattan? 
  

When I got to the street I was a bit puzzled as everything was just plain bricks and concrete with a few cars parked; nothing to indicate I was at at the right place. However as I got to the actual address, I saw two men outside liming, I asked if this was the location for the Alex Mali video shoot and one nonchalantly pointed to a door and said “Yes man, Is here, go through that door”. As I proceeded through the door, I was like YUP, I’m here. The door led to a small room which opened up to the backyard of the property. There were people fashionably dressed in 90’s style dancehall attire and in their hands were Shandy Carib, Red Stripe alcoholic beverages and Golden Krust patties. 

The film crew was setting up, people were strolling in and the Dj was spinning music getting the vibes started. I used this time to get acquainted with the space and interacted with a few of the extras for the video.  The team working on the visuals was called Thrice Cooked Media and I must say they did an amazing job fusing both digital and analog formats for the music video. 

They say time flies by when having fun, and just like that the afternoon ran off quickly. It was so cool to be able to document the process such a cool video for what I think is a very cool fusion track. Unfortunately for me I couldn’t stay for the rest of the shoot as I had to hurry and catch a bus to Manhattan where my Uncle decided to pick me up. 

When I got back to Jamaica I kept in contact with Alex and with the help of Amilcar interviewed for the latest issue of Backayard Magazine which can also be read online here. Some time has passed and Alex Mali has since then released this fiery single  “Set Good” give it a listen and let me know what you think.

Enjoy these awesome behind the scenes photos and the official music video. 

Thanks for being patient with me. I’m working on a way to ensure these blog posts come out more frequently. 

-Jik-Reuben Pringle, The Visual Ninja,

2018.

~Peace, Perfect Peace~