Sol - 2020

What this video is

Released January 20, 2012, Sol's '2020' arrived during a pivotal moment for the Seattle independent hip-hop scene — just as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis were ascending toward mainstream recognition while remaining fiercely DIY in ethos. Sol (Sol Moravia-Rosenberg), a Russian-Jewish/Haitian rapper from Seattle, embodied the same Pacific Northwest aesthetic: live instrumentation, introspective lyricism, and a rejection of…

Why it matters

An artifact of the 2012 Pacific Northwest conscious hip-hop underground, '2020' by Sol represents the live-instrument indie rap tradition that briefly rivaled mainstream trap aesthetics. The video's DIY production values and performance-forward editing reflect a generation of independent rap…

The director

Zac McConnell is a filmmaker and editor active in the Seattle-area independent music video and creative video production space circa 2012. He served as both director and editor on Sol's '2020' music video, one of the few credited music video productions…