As Friday night concludes another week, the Republic’s “Throwback” night is packed with New Orleans locals and college students dressed in stark white and dabbed with neon paint. It’s April 9, and black lights fill the room and strobe lights hit the ’80’s themed clothing as the newest G-Eazy music video, “SB Dunks” is screened.
The video, shot mainly with a wide angle, fisheye lens, shows G-Eazy dangerously up close and surrounded by a group of women painted in bright neon colors. Playing up his signature light-hearted, feel-good lyrics, he raps, “I rock SB Dunks or my Reebok Pumps / Some Spike Lee J’s that I only wore once. / I don’t know about y’all, but we do thangs / Got a nice ass sway and a mean shoe game.”
Rapper by night, student by day, Gerald Gillum started his career while still a freshman at Loyola University in 2007. Since then, Gillum has independently produced several albums and videos promoting his pop/rock rap alongside a management team of other Loyola undergraduates. Now beyond the amateur stages, “SB Dunks” is the team’s fifth music video, and the first single off Gillum’s third independent album, Big.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASBMvdQOdbk[/youtube]
Released at 4:20 a.m. today, Gillum compares the album to previous works: “This is a lot more honest, straightforward. It’s a portrayal of young people dealing with real life—about feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt and achieving something you really want.”
Inspired by the 1988 film Big, starring Tom Hanks, the album follows the psychological evolution of a young man’s growth into adulthood only to discover his childish heart all along. With the playful single, “SB Dunks,” Gillum and his video director, fellow Loyola student Tyler Yee, hopes that this will be a good segue into the grittier tracks. Gillum says, “You have to get people’s ears. You need to be fishing and hook them in to bring them into the rest of the story for the bigger picture.”
The “SB Dunks” music video is online now at G-Eazy’s web site, along with a downloadable version of Big.
