RESPECT. Premiere: Hazel Rose - "Silly Me" - RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture

Hazel Rose, a talented Bay-Area rapper and singer, has plans to follow up her 2015 album The Seed with a new EP, A Lover’s War. As part of promotion for the project, Rose dropped a music video for her song “Silly Me.”

A versatile artist, Hazel Rose comes through with a dancehall-esque beat, reminiscent of what artists like Drake and Tory Lanez have been experimenting with lately. The reggae sound is reinforced by heavy caribbean imagery in the video, particularly sublime mountains, Jamaican flags, and club dancing popular in the West Indies.

Heavily inspired and intrigued by Jamaican culture, Rose and her entourage headed to Jamaica in order to firmly grasp an accurate portrayal of it. When speaking of the song, she had this to say:

“”Silly Me” came together in rhythm. Soon after we created the song (produced by Marty Mxfly, Stylo and Mic Angelo) my good friend and collaborator Bousa Concepts invited me to travel with her to Kingston, Jamaica. We both have a shared love and appreciation for Reggae and Dancehall music and culture. We decided to make this video together with no budget and little time, but with the incredible inspiration of the vibrance of Jamaica and its people. We ended up being lucky enough to get an inside look at Kingston from two of the city’s most inspiring upcoming artists, rapper/TV host Sanjay and dancer Shelly Belly. They showed us around their home and featured in the video as well as an upcoming remix of the song.

The way it turned out perfectly captures the meaning of the song for me. Mixed emotions of heartache and joy. The fleeting beauty in experiences felt; the nostalgia of longing, love and memory. The might-have-been, and the unfolding of what comes next.”