Henri "Shinin'" [VIDEO]

Henri's debut album Welcome To The Show has been out since the spring, and he's been releasing videos for it the way other people release singles one at a time, as a serial. "Shinin'" is the ninth instalment of that short-film run, which is a real commitment for an album that already has a DJ Premier lead single on it. The video is a proper piece of narrative rather than a performance clip: Henri wakes handcuffed in an unidentified room, gets strapped to a chair by two doctors, sedated, tested, hypnotised, escapes, wakes up strapped down again, escapes for real, and ends in an alleyway with the briefcase he's been protecting the whole time. SPR Kane shot and cut it; POI Entertainment produced and co-directed, and the whole thing is distributed with Fat Beats. Cozyy and Apache appear. Stoic and pilotkid produced the record, and they build it bright a clean, melodic loop that gives Henri room to do the thing he does best, which is sound like someone talking himself into a better mood. The hook is literal: "I don't know what you want from me / so I'mma keep shining." The verses are full of small, concrete details whiskey drops, building nights in New York, moves in the ATL and the flow stretches and compresses rather than sitting on the beat. Henri comes out of Alabama, which is not a state that produces many Fat Beats debutants, and that distance shows up in the writing: no regional posturing, no scene obligations. SPR Kane mixed and mastered, and the vocal sits right on top. Nine films in, the serial has become the more interesting project. Worth watching in order.

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