Porter Ray - Past Life

What this video is

Released March 9, 2017 as the lead single video for Porter Ray's debut Sub Pop album 'Watercolor,' 'Past Life' emerges from Seattle's Central District hip-hop tradition—a lineage the label explicitly situates alongside Quincy Jones, Jimi Hendrix, and Ishmael Butler. The video's hyper-local Seattle geography (MLK Way, Lake Washington) functions as cultural testimony, anchoring autobiographical lyrics about…

Why it matters

A landmark document of Pacific Northwest underground hip-hop's Sub Pop-era mainstreaming moment, 'Past Life' demonstrates how indie-rap auteur video culture of the mid-2010s prioritized autobiographical realism and geographic specificity over budget spectacle. Its extremely low brightness…

The director

Patrick O'Brien-Smith is a Seattle-area photographer and music video director whose portfolio spans portrait, fashion, and narrative visual work. His personal site references collaborations within the Pacific Northwest creative music community, including…