Herve Pagez & Diplo - Spicy (feat. Charli XCX)

What this video is

Released May 30, 2019 via Mad Decent, 'Spicy' arrived during a peak moment of late-2010s nostalgia commerce, directly interpolating the Spice Girls' 1996 global phenomenon 'Wannabe' — requiring the Spice Girls as credited co-songwriters. The collaboration brought together French-Guadeloupean producer Herve Pagez, American festival-circuit superproducer Diplo, and British hyperpop-adjacent pop star Charli XCX. The…

Why it matters

Landmark example of Mad Decent-era tropical/dancehall-inflected EDM pop intersecting with 90s nostalgia IP, and one of the earliest high-profile music videos to use Unreal Engine as its sole production environment. The track represents a convergence of hyperpop sensibility (Charli XCX), global…

The director

Reed + Rader is the creative directing duo of Pamela Reed and Matthew Rader, originally from Ohio and Pennsylvania, who joined forces in the early 2000s. They specialize in directing music videos, GIFs, and virtual reality experiences set in fully virtual…