Kidd Kenn - Coming

What this video is

Released October 2023 via 4th & B'Way/Def Jam, 'Coming' arrives at a pivotal moment for queer representation in hip-hop. Kidd Kenn — born January 16, 2003 in Chicago's Chatham neighborhood — made history in 2021 as the first openly gay male rapper in the BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher. Signed to Island Records at age 15, Kenn's trajectory represents a generational shift in mainstream rap's tolerance for queer identity,…

Why it matters

As a major-label single from a 20-year-old openly gay Chicago rapper, 'Coming' is a document of genre boundary dissolution: it deploys the kinetic street-video vocabulary of drill and trap while coding it through a queer lens. The fast-edited, nocturnal visual language aligns with 2023 hip-hop…

The director

Charlie Rees is a UK-based music video and commercial director, Co-Founder/Creative Director of Fuego Films (est. 2018), and Director at Untold Studios (since 2021). His credits include the Boney M x Majestic 'Rasputin' video, 'Majestic & Nightcrawlers:…