clipping. - Change the Channel

What this video is

Released January 2025 as a lead single from Dead Channel Sky (Sub Pop, March 14, 2025), clipping.'s pivot from horror-rap to cyberpunk marks a deliberate genre migration within experimental hip-hop. The track and video arrive amid a broader cultural resurgence of cyberpunk aesthetics in Black speculative art, building on the Afrofuturist lineage the group has developed across Hugo Award-nominated work. The 'dead…

Why it matters

Represents a landmark moment in noise-rap / experimental hip-hop's visual culture: the pairing of clipping.'s maximalist, musique concrète-rooted production with a formally adventurous director from the Black independent film tradition. The video's hyper-edited, cyberpunk visual grammar extends…

The director

Washington DC-born filmmaker (b. 1988), graduate of USC School of Cinematic Arts. Son of celebrated Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima, a key figure of the LA Rebellion film movement. Debut feature Residue (2020) won the Audience Award at Slamdance and…