LONDON, UK — Little Simz unveils the video for ‘Introvert’, the first release from the new album ‘Sometimes I might be Introvert’. Without wasting any time at all, the album opens with the heart-stopping clarion call of “Introvert,” a visceral essay about lives lived in the cross-hairs of society, fuelled by fear, exhaustion, frustration, but also a kind of white-hot political awakening.
The video for ‘Introvert’ is directed by Salomon Ligthelm, who recently signed with PRETTYBIRD UK. ‘Introvert’ is a full-bore, high-stakes, facing up to death riposte, and as urgent as it is compelling. The stunning video is by turns majestic and terrifying, with a chopped up, collaged structure perfectly mirroring the landscape it maps; a place of beauty and danger, of violence and dogged resistance.
The centre, Simz is keen to remind us, will not hold (“man it’s like they can’t sleep until our spirit is crushed”) – and here she is driven to document every unsparing detail. ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’ is due September 3rd via Age 101, and is the first full length from Simz since her critically-acclaimed, Mercury Prize-nominated 2019 record GREY Area.
Ligthelm first worked with SIMZ on the Top Boy Promo for Season 3, and at the end of 2020, they talked about collaborating on a video together for SIMZ’s new music.
Director Salomon Ligthelm explains: “SIMZ reached out and said she was working on new music and would love to collaborate on a video together. When I listened to ‘Introvert’, I was blown away. I was sitting there, in my quiet little bubble taking it all in- the lyrics, the sound, the scale. I connected with SIMZ and her creative director Jeremy Cole, and I remember telling them in broad-strokes about some visual/thematic ideas I had. That was the start of a very fluid and super collaborative process with SIMZ and Jeremy.”
‘Introvert’ was shot on a mix of formats but predominantly Super 16mm and 4-perf 35mm Film. The shoot took 2 days and locations included the Natural History Museum, Wallace Collection, Peckham, and Crystal Palace Sports ground in London. Ligthelm’s energetic style of storytelling mashes up newly shot footage of Simz and dancers performing choreography in grand locations, archival news footage, and historical paintings, with the final video taking around 5 days to edit.
Salomon Ligthelm is a New York-based, self-taught filmmaker whose work always has a human element and unique style of storytelling. Only 4 years into his career, he has already enjoyed great success, working with Puma, G-Star Raw, and Young Fathers, and gaining plaudits including 2 Gold and 3 Silver at the YDAs, and selection for the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase.
Ligthelm says of the concept for the ‘Introvert’ video: “The track is really epic and crosses a lot of thematic territory. It became fairly obvious to me at the outset that it wasn’t going to be easy to find imagery that matches the scale of the music and lyrics – especially not without becoming didactic. A lot of the archival, and use of art history elements were considerations drawn up right at the outset. It’s hard to know who you are or to accept who you are when you are made to feel like an outcast, an enemy. The film is about finding people moving from a state of chaos and societal disconnection into a space of community, connection, and freedom – embracing a true understanding of who they are.”
PRETTYBIRD UK Co-Founder and Executive Producer Juliette Larthe comments: “Salomon’s music video for SIMZ’ ‘Introvert’ his first work with us is an epic, powerful, boundary-pushing film that is so poignant for the times of inequality we are fighting against, written while in constant communication with Simz, good friends since they connected on the Top Boy set. Salomon’s distinctive style of cinematic story-telling, in this mashing up of archival news footage combining backdrops of colonial history, narrated with and by SIMZ lyrics, prose, and song, as choreography visually and viscerally punches throughout, creates a piece that helps to recognise struggle and promotes change.”
Over the course of her lush, expansive, defiantly sprawling new album, Simz delivers an undeniable modern classic, effortlessly condensing any number of disparate styles and genres into music which thrillingly broaches the gap between urgent modern treatise and hip hop. A bold, quantum leap forward from GREY Area, this is hardly music aiming simply for the pop charts; rather, it is turbocharged with the kind of fury and potency, confusion, and anxiety that make up the modern experience of being a black woman at this particular point in time. This is no mere philosophical exercise, however – the result is her most ambitious and soaring body of work to date, one which operates at the very heights of what rap can be.
CREDITS
Director: Salomon Ligthelm
Production Company: PRETTYBIRD UK
MD/Exec Producer: Juliette Larthe Exec Producer: Chris Murdoch
Producer: MrMr
Production Manager: Lucy Bradley
Production Assistant: Ella Knight
DOP: Joel Honeywell
1st AD: Joshua Loftin
1st AC: Hopi Demattio
2nd AC: Kairo Jones
Steadicam: Richard Lewis
Camera Trainee: Trey Joèl Robinson
Grip: Viz Sopjani
Gaffer: Yan Murawski
Spark: Serkan Cetin
Spark: Yuri
Production Designer: Laura Little
Art Department Assistant: Chris Dent
Stylist: Luci Ellis
Stylist Assistant: Natalie Asare
Stylist Assistant: Elizabeth Beh
Artists Hair Stylist: Chantelle Fuller
Hair & Makeup Artist: Nibras
Hair Assistant: Diana Francis
Make Up Assistant: Sandra Hadi
Choreographer: Kloe Dean
SFX Supervisor: Nigel Cripps
Runner: Daisy Smith
Runner: Lucia Ritucci
Runner: Apolo Wilson
Production Runner: Tyshan Dwyer
BTS: Tamiym Cader
Artists Assistant: Tilla Arcé
Medic/Covid Supervisor: Richard Hayward
Action Vehicle Driver: Brent-James Pinder
Minibus Driver: Roger Rose
Camera Car Driver: Grump Transport
Casting: Lane Casting
Develop and Processing: Cinelab London
Editor: Elise Butt
Edit Producer: Polly Kemp
Colourist: Simon Bourne
Color Producer: Chris Anthony
Dancer: Chantelle Dawe
Dancer: Cherilyn Albert
Dancer: Claire Hough
Dancer: Dani Harris-Walters
Dancer: India Bowen
Dancer: Koby Turner
Dancer: Lewis Bramble
Dancer: Stefano A Addae
Cast:
Fady Elsayed
Amber Lowe
Georgia Neath
Ayomide Plufidipe
Narisha Nawson
Samuel King
James Mace
Charlie Shaw
Adam Hafez
Glody Kinkiani
Jabari Ngozi
Warrick Simon
Antony Francis
Hannah Kumah
Janelle Kumah
Cullen Kumah
Label: AWAL
Commissioners: Bianca Bhagat and Cheyenne Miller
Camera supplied by MCX Films
Lighting supplied by SHL Lighting
Thanks to Chris and Nikki Snode
Cinelab and Aarti Mahtani
