Ben Harper - With My Own Two Hands

What this video is

Released in early 2003 as the lead single from Diamonds on the Inside, 'With My Own Two Hands' arrived during a period of heightened global political tension following the September 11 attacks and the lead-up to the Iraq War, making its message of individual agency and peaceful change especially resonant. The song's up-tempo reggae groove connected Ben Harper to a lineage of conscious roots music at a moment when…

Why it matters

A key artifact of early-2000s conscious roots-rock, the video helped consolidate Ben Harper's reputation as a genre-fluid, socially engaged artist. Its documentary-warm aesthetic became a template for the singer-songwriter music video format of the era, prioritizing authenticity over high-concept…

The director

The Malloys is the professional moniker of brothers Emmett Malloy and Brendan Malloy, self-taught LA-based directors who built their reputations on surf lifestyle films before transitioning into music videos, commercials, documentaries, and features. Their…