First Watch: Tunji Ige, 'War'

LANGUAGE ADVISORY:This video contains profanity.

Tunji Ige is a name you should get used to seeing. As a rapper from Philly, he's set himself apart from his competitors and collaborators alike by focusing on creating the most artistic facade possible — literally. His image is well-calculated and intentional. The beautifully arresting cover art for his Missed Calls EP, released in April, inspired the video for the project's standout track, "War." "The Missed Calls cover was inspired by Magritte & other surrealist artists," Ige says. "My goal with the 'War' video was to make an extension of that — a piece of moving surrealist art."

Directed by Glassface (who was behind the viral "1 NIGHT" video by teen Atlanta rapper Lil Yachty), the visuals were shot in Los Angeles, and feature frames that freeze into scenes that look like they were actually painted onto a canvas. The colors of the stills are breathtaking dawn pinks and oranges mixed with oceanic blues, not far off from the natural colors we see in the live shots. With Noah Breakfast on the production, an old-school Nextel chirp acts as a signal that it's about to go down: It marks the beginning of the song, the ends of Ige's verses, and comically, as strategic censoring.

Throughout the track, Ige speaks aloud to himself, and to the object of his affection from afar: "We can go to war on 'em girl, while the rest stay cool. / If anybody wanna, they can come. You gon' see what we gon' do." We can't directly see any female faces, and there are more than a few silhouettes featured — which might mean he's talking to more than one person. To be frank, it doesn't seem to matter who she is. She just has to be down for Ige and ready to go to war.

Tunji Ige will be on tour this summer, starting June 11 in Atlanta, Ga.

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