Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z, Gorillaz… all the music videos you missed in August

Jay-Z – Moonlight 

 

This summer Jay-Z released a video to accompany his track "Moonlight", a parody not to be missed of the 90s sitcom Friends. Tessa Thompson (Westworld), Jerrod Carmichael of the Carmichael Show and Lil Rel Howery who starred in the feature film Get Out all play characters from the cult TV show in an Afro-American version. A dig on the artist’s behalf at the lack of black actors in American entertainment? From the album 4:44, this new track borrows its title from the Oscar-winning movie by Barry Jenkins Moonlight about an Afro-American gay man over three periods of his life. Just a month after the cartoon mockumentary "The Story of O.J" that paid tribute to the controversial O.J Simpson, Jay-Z has kept his promise to deliver a political album, in music as much as in image.

 

Grizzly Bear – Mourning Sound

 

The American quartet Grizzly Bear is back with the superb album Painted Ruins released on August 18th and they’ve invited French actress Clemence Poesy to star in the video for "Mourning Sound". Five years of absence and a fifth album for this spearhead of millennial psyche pop that abandons indie rock in favour of more retro sounds. The group will be passing through Paris on October 16th at the Olympia.

Kendrick Lamar – Loyalty

 

Some say he is the best rapper on the scene right now, and Kendrick Lamar has indeed broken all the records with his album Damn that was released last April. This time alongside the bootylicious Rihanna, the American artist plunges us into urban life with "Loyalty", one of the album’s key tracks after "Humble", "DNA" and "Element".

Kelela – LMK 

 

Having collaborated already with various artists including Solange, the new queen of R'n'B Kelela will launch her much anticipated first album Take me apart on October 6th. Directed by Björk’s collaborator Andrew Thomas Huang, the video for the first track “LMK” shows the American singer in various states of being, from fulfilled to emancipated, amidst a surrealist visual world accompanied by futuristic R'n'B and electro sounds.

Gorillaz – Strobelite

 

On April 28th of this year Gorillaz released Humanz and that was nothing short of a major event. The big track off the album "Strobelite" (a disco tune to which crooner Peven Everett skilfully adds his voice) now has its own video. While Londoner Benjamin Clementine was honoured in the previous video for "Hallelujah Money", the emblematic Gorillaz figures are back in all their animated glory with a new aesthetic for this one.

Macklemore – Marmalade 

 

American rapper Macklemore calls upon Lil Yachty for his new track “Marmalade”. The singer of "Can't Hold Us and the controversial Atlanta-based rapper have enlisted a troop of mini-me’s to act out a day in the fantasy life of a hip-hop artist. Mackelmore has already announced his next album without giving an exact date, only this time his partner in crime Ryan Lewis, DJ and producer who’s accompanied him up until now, won’t be on the scene.