WATCH: DaBaby Releases Two New Music Videos For “ROCKSTAR” And Its BLM Remix
WATCH: DaBaby Releases Two New Music Videos For “ROCKSTAR” And Its BLM Remix
DaBaby’s B.E.T. performance hits deeps with the reenactment of George Floyd’s death
On June 26th, Grammy-nominated rapper DaBaby released his music video for his Billboard #1 song, “ROCKSTAR” featuring Roddy Ricch – off the album Blame it on Baby. Created alongside frequent collaborators Reel Goats – who are the masterminds behind DaBay’s videos for, “Bop” and “Suge”. With the “ROCKSTAR” illuminating darker themes with a serious undertone, it features Roddy and DaBaby fighting off zombies in the midst of a pandemic. The track has quickly accumulated over 334.5 million plays on Spotify – becoming DaBaby’s second most popular song ever on the streaming platform. The music video has since reached over 30 million views to date on YouTube.
June 28 hosted the B.E.T. [Black Entertainment Television] Awards but due to the pandemic, producers were forced to adapt to a ceremony within quarantine. To accommodate this new way of life, DaBaby was one of the many artists who also released a music video in place of a live performance. In the wake of the protests against police brutality and growing support for Black Lives Matter – DaBaby created a new music video for the “BLM Remix” of “ROCKSTAR”. The remix opens with an extra verse from DaBaby speaking on the fears people of color feel about a system that has sworn to protect you is the reason you won’t get to see your family again – within the verse DaBaby compares those who are protesting to rockstars.
The B.E.T. video starts out with what seems to be DaBaby lying on the ground, but as the camera pans back it’s revealed that this is a reenactment of the unjust death of George Floyd at the hands of a white officer. The video quickly overlays with sporadic footage from various protests, while panning back to DaBaby performing on top of a burning police car. He is surrounded by various people holding up signs and wearing shirts that read “Black Lives Matter” or “I Am..” [followed by the name of an individual murdered by police]. The end of a video shows a girl emerging from the smoke with a sign that says, “More Love” – behind this imagery plays the quote from, Zeanna Oliphant, in her 2016 viral speech that she made when she was 9. Oliphant’s voice concludes the video echoing, “We are Black people, and we shouldn’t have to feel like this, We shouldn’t have to protest because y’all are treating us wrong. We do this because we need to. It’s a shame our fathers and mothers are killed and we can’t even see them anymore.”
