California artist Symba has had to overcome some false starts and personal obstacles to overcome in the last decade, but now he's on solid footing and willing to share the lessons from his years of hustling, what he calls his Ghetto Literacy, with the world. And today's visual lesson comes from the book of "Birds In The Bando."
The booming 808-laced track is filled with clever flips of rap platitudes ("Don't be calling us if you ain't getting money, you can't ball with us/My niggas in the big leagues, I don't think you tall enough/We walk enough, I don't think you crawled enough") while the McCraken-directed video features Symba in simple and powerful scenes like an updated version of The Last Supper replacing the food with fried chicken and fries.
In an email, Symba explained the inspiration behinds his lyrics: “The concept behind ‘Birds in the Bando’ is how I saw capitalism growing up. It’s kinda like hood capitalism. We always hear that there’s only a couple ways out and we all know what those ways are. For some guys their way out is getting it from the streets and for some girls their way out is to get it from the guys who got it from the streets. It’s a vicious cycle my nigga...so the video is basically a celebration of being able to escape that...'The Vicious Cycle.'"
Symba's debut album on Atlantic Don’t Run From R.A.P. is due out later this year.
Photo: Jimmy Fontaine