Joey Bada$$ Paper Trails Video
Still cruising on the momentum of his brilliant debut LP B4.Da.$$, Joey Bada$$ has just released the new music video for his single "Paper Trails." Shot in bleak monochrome and set amongst a Brooklyn that's more bare branches and dice games than rooftop gardens and craft cocktails, the video is a captivating mini-tale of a young son hustling to help his struggling single mother make ends meet--by any means necessary. Bada$$ plays the lead role with a brilliant intensity in his eyes, and even as he's smiling amidst friends after winning a dice game, his track's underlying theme--that money can solve a great many problems, but it can't fill the hole that, much deeper down, sits inside us all. "Paper Trails," with its tense, expansive verses and first-rate production courtesy of DJ Premier, appears to be on the road to timelessness, a rare modern glimmer of synthesized rhythm and prose that manifests the true essence of hip-hop--it keeps our heads nodding while inside our brains spin.
When Joey Bada$$ performed "Paper Trails" live in Paris earlier this month, the emotive power of the track was obvious--his on-stage persona belies his tender age of 20. But somehow, the new video clip seems to capture even more; these visions of dollar-packed shoeboxes and showdowns far beyond the embrace of city streetlights encapsulate everything that "Paper Trails" has to offer, that is, an admission of guilt. We all must do things we're not proud of in order to maintain our domestic tranquility.
Bada$$ has been especially busy as of late, despite the fact that he's in the middle of a world tour (check a list of dates below). The MC stopped by Los Angeles radio bastion Power 106 to freestyle over a series of classic Tupac instrumental beats (today would have been Pac's 44th birthday, for you unawares out there). Watch that clip, but do so only after you've taken in the new clip for "Paper Trails." If Joey Bada$$ is the future, we're keeping hopeful about what's to come.
Joey Bada$$ World Domination Tour Dates:
6/16 – Catalyst – Santa Cruz, CA *
6/17 – Regency – San Francisco, CA *
6/18 – WOW Hall – Eugene, OR *
6/19 – Wonder – Portland, OR ^
6/20 – KUBE Radio Show – Seattle, WA *
6/25 – Bravalla Festival – Sweden
6/26 – Provinnsrock Festival – Finland
6/27 – Tinderbox Festival – Denmark
7/03 – Wireless Festival – London, UK
7/04 – Woo Ha! Hip Hop Festival – Tilburg, Holland
7/05 – Coloeur Café Festival – Belgium
7/09 – Balaton Sound Festival – Hungary
7/10 – Uebel & Gefaehrlich – Hamburg, Germany
7/11 – Splash Festival – Berlin, Germany
7/15 – Fresh Island Festival – Croatia
7/17 – Slottsfjell – Tonsberg, Norway
7/18 – Hip Hop Open – Stutgart, Germany
7/25 – Fuji Rock – Tokyo, Japan
* w/ Mick Jenkins & Denzel Curry
^ w/ Denzel Curry
