Today, Brooklyn rapper Dillon Cooper premieres the video for X.XX cut "Practice" that is giving us a Michael Jackson "Bad"-vibe—minus the choreography and leather, plus a hip-hop edge. It follows Cooper as he meets up with friends and heads down into the underground city that is the N.Y. subway system, waiting to go into battle. Cooper and his squad stare down their enemies, which end up being a group of bad ass chicks with chains, bats, and steel bars! The last shot we see is there stand-off from across the platform.
For Cooper, the song "Practice" is about staking his claim in the rap game. It opens with the line, We're talking about practice! from the infamous 2002 Allen Iverson press conference where the MVP felt that reporters were trivially hounding him about his practice habits instead of his epic game performances. In this sense Dillon Cooper is Iverson. "The song to me is more or less a public service announcement," Cooper told The FADER over email. "I just felt like I had to state my opinion on where I stand in this game of rap, and just tell it straight forward."