THEESatisfaction - Recognition

What this video is

Released January 8, 2015 as the lead single from THEESatisfaction's second Sub Pop album EarthEE, 'Recognition' arrives at a charged moment in Black American cultural life — amid a resurgent Black Lives Matter movement and a broader critical reexamination of Black artistic legacies. The video explicitly situates the Seattle duo within a Black bohemian continuum stretching from the Harlem Renaissance through…

Why it matters

A landmark document of the mid-2010s avant-R&B underground, bridging Seattle's Black Weirdo scene (associated with Shabazz Palaces and Sub Pop's experimental wing) with Philadelphia's Black conceptual art world. The video deepens the cultural argument of the song itself, reframing hip-hop and R&B…

The director

Philadelphia-based interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and curator (b. 1981, Blytheville, AR). Trained in film and psychology at Clark Atlanta University; continued studies at Spelman College. Founder of Harriet's Gun Media and Conceptual Fade…