Jhené Aiko - Summer 2020

What this video is

Released July 17, 2020 alongside Chilombo (Deluxe) on Def Jam/ARTium Recordings, 'Summer 2020' exists at the intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic and the heightened national reckoning with racial injustice following the murder of George Floyd. The track samples Kool & The Gang's 'Summer Madness' — the same source sampled in DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince's 1991 'Summertime' — anchoring the song in a lineage of…

Why it matters

A defining artifact of quarantine-era Alt-R&B visual production, the video demonstrates how pandemic constraints catalyzed an aesthetic shift toward intimate, nature-suffused home videos in Black contemporary music. The VFX-augmented naturalism established a template for softly surreal, low-motion…

The director

Eyes (handle: @createdbyeyes) is an LA-based artist, music video director, and editor. Eyes has maintained a sustained creative collaboration with Jhené Aiko across multiple projects, including directing 'Sativa' and serving as director, editor, and 2nd unit…