New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Today, Open Mike Eagle released a music video from his acclaimed album 'Brick Body Kids Still Daydream' (out now/Mello
Music Group), which XXL recently hailed as "one of the best [albums] of the year." The video, filmed in a junkyard in Valencia, CA, frames the track "Happy Wasteland Day" as a bleak, satirical, apocalyptic desert world - like a Mad Max fever dream that mirrors reality.
Watch "Happy Wasteland Day" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbUQrHprUHo
Just like the hit TV show referenced in the opening moments of the video, "Happy Wasteland Day" depicts a world where things have gone terribly wrong. The song is crammed with cutting verses: "Now we all in a zombie movie / only weapon is common sense / zombie sheriffs is tryna lynch us / guess I'll call up my congressman," he raps while surrounded by rusty car shells and fire-breathers. Mike pleads for just "one day without violence," making this video feel all the more present.
"We're releasing this video a year to the day of the election of the garbage king. May our national nightmare end sometime soon." - Open Mike Eagle
The video is directed and edited by Ryan Calavano and the song is produced by Exile.
'Brick Body Kids Still Daydream' has been met with acclaim from NPR, Rolling Stone, VICE Noisey, XXL, Spin, and more.
Recently, Mike was featured in an AV Club mini-documentary, which followed him as he returned to the site of the housing project he would visit as a child to explore the album's inspiration. Watch here: https://bit.ly/2y0L75x
Buy/download/stream 'Brick Body Kids Still Daydream' on all major platforms here: https://tinyurl.com/y72v73ky
PRAISE FOR 'BRICK BODY KIDS STILL DAYDREAM':
"Armed with a caustic wit and a poetic eye, Open Mike Eagle builds a small, quiet monument to a housing project in
Chicago across a diverse and singular piece of contemporary hip-hop." - Pitchfork, 8.1/10
"Open Mike Eagle fuses the source and its voice [The Robert Taylor Homes], literally becoming the building as he delivers a defiant blues." - NPR
"[Open Mike Eagle's] headiest yet…Masterfully adds a 'historical' circle to hip-hop's powerful Venn diagram of the personal and political." - Rolling Stone
"Lead single '95 Radios' is an instant classic...one of the most beautiful songs about listening to rap music on the radio you will ever hear." - VICE Noisey
"Epic…Eagle makes grand narrative connections across the album and does so through his skills as a storyteller and rapper with a sublimely confident flow." - LA Times
"[Open Mike Eagle's] best to date…Perfects the craft of the concept album." - Uproxx
"Extraordinary…perhaps the year's best rap album." - Vinyl Me Please
"a master of detailing the human condition…his most heartfelt work to date." - Bandcamp
"One of the best [albums] of the year so far." - XXL
"[Open Mike Eagle's] relatable wit…knives at an open wound." - SPIN
"[Open Mike Eagle's] most cohesive and emotionally potent work so far." - The Needledrop
"Emotional social commentary with a graphic novel storytelling dreaminess." - Splitsider
"His comedic voice is clear. Tinged with absurdity and exasperation, it's one of the factors that makes Brick Body Kids Still Daydream as enjoyable as it is thought-provoking." - Flood
"Emphatically humanizing…Bold, powerful and deeply effective…Nothing short of art." -
Passion of the Weiss
"A timely chronicle of a community in crisis." - Indypendent
"[Open Mike Eagle's] latest triumph." - Brooklyn Vegan
"Continues to separate himself from the pack as a fascinating figure in hip hop, one whose sense of humor and abundance of heart marks him a compelling voice to follow…" - Spectrum Culture
"[Open Mike Eagle's] most consistently impressive album yet." - The 405
