To put it plain and simple, Florida is on the come up. Whether it’s in the mainstream with cats like Kodak Black and Rick Ross, or it’s in the underground with cult leaders like XXXTENTACION or Pouya; Florida is a hot bed for talent in 2017. Last year we introduced you to another emcee making waves from The Sunshine State by the name of Dashawn Watson. Since our interview with the hotspitter, Watson has amassed a bigger following on the back of the infectious single “[SLIDE]”, a smooth but potent introduction to Watson. More recently, Watson dropped the eye-popping visual for the track, “You Are (Not) Alone”, a more self-reflective track that see’s Watson digging deeper into his heart for content. We sat down with the 21-year-old up and comer to discuss the making of the visual – which you can view below – as well as what to expect in the upcoming future. Check it out below.
RESPECT.: What went into the idea behind this video?
DaShawn Watson: A lot of my songs have an associated color to me; “YANA” felt very dark, somewhere between black and blue, so of course night time felt right. I wanted something that simply looked nice, just to show people the quality we working with because a lot of those shots are very impromptu. We were up around 4 A.M. over a few days just to get these shots, funny thing is we got stopped by cops like 3 times just cause they wanted to see what we was doing.
RESPECT.: What went into the idea behind this song?
Watson: The song has a big parallelism to the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. It’s basically inspired by the movie Evangelion 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone because I’m tying in my past situations with a girl and the general theme for the movie about being alone. Throughout the song I’m dropping a couple lines that anime heads are only going to get, but I’m still saying some real shit regardless.
RESPECT.: Why the location?
Watson: Most of the shots are located in Sunrise, North Lauderdale, and Wilton Manors (all Broward County, Florida). I threw in the Broward Meat Market cause I gotta stay true to home and show people you can make visuals here. People who think we don’t have attractive scenery or “there’s nothing in Broward”, I’ve got to show them otherwise.
RESPECT.: How does the story in the video match up to the idea of the track?
Watson: In the video, I’m alone and the girl is all alone, we’re never together. The song pretty much reflects on who I’m rapping about; a situation in which we both want each other but under different circumstances.
RESPECT.: While creating a visual, what elements are most important to you and how do they reflect in this video?
Watson: A good consistent color scheme, one that plays a role in the wardrobe, the set location, even down to the lighting. I really want my videos to be aesthetically pleasing. I ain’t perfected that craft yet but I’ll be continually improving with each video. I might even start studying film to get a better understanding of it.
RESPECT.: Who directed/shot this video?
Watson: My bro Ashton Jazz shot majority of the video while I edited it.
RESPECT.: What type of visuals can we expect soon in the future?
Watson: It’s bout to be straight visuals for me and my dogs honestly. Ivy dropping, Ashton dropping, and I might just shoot something else for “Main” and “[SLIDE]”.
Be sure to check out the visual for “YANA” below and keep it locked for more Behind The Visual installments.
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