How Bay Swag made the music video for “LAYDERR”

Queens rapper Bay Swag is wary of people coming around when his money is up.

Case in point: the new music video for “LAYDERR” — which follows Bay Swag before and after getting a bag, and culminates in a celebration at the strip club. The track and video are his second link-up with Chicago royalty G Herbo, and it arrived six years after their last collaboration, 2023’s “Quagen.” The new Lavish-directed video has a dark and moody feel to it, mirroring the haunting production of the track. Slizzy girls Marni and Millie make appearances, and G Herbo is glistening in Chrome Hearts. “

LAYDERR” shows a rapper moving "sexy drill"— the hedonistic and women-centered redux of "drill"—into a whole new sultrier feeling. It also shows someone who knows his major blow-up is on the way.

The FADER chopped it up over email with sexy drill rapper Bay Swag to discuss the new visual from his next LP.

FADER: How did you and Herbo first link up?
Bay Swag: It's crazy. I knew Herbo for a long time and I actually had another song with him drop probably like years ago when I was still coming up: “Quagen.” So Herb and Rocco were with me for a long time, even longer than that, but we met through mutuals of course and we've been locked in ever since.

What was the recording session like?
Bay Swag: Honestly, I recorded it without a verse. The song was like two months old before I had reached out to him. It's a crazy story how it happened though. I feel like God is just so real. I was on my way home to Queens. I live really far from New York.I'm on my way home and I was in the car with my homeboy and I'm like, yo, who you think sound good on this? He was like, I think Herb will sound good on this. So literally I call Herb, he answers, I see him in the studio. I'm like, “Yo, where you at? You in New York?” He's like, “Yeah, I'm out here. I already see you in the studio.” So I turn all the way around, go back to the studio. It's like three in the morning when I get there. I get there, we make the song in like five [minutes], and that was literally it.

Tell us about how the concept for the "LAYDERR" music video came together. How did you and your team decide on a director and treatment for the video?
Bay Swag: We [went] home team with my brother, the Lavish, shout out IME Studios. Lav does a lot of my videos. When you're working with somebody consistently, you gotta build a relationship, you gotta build the bond. I left the treatment in Lav's hands and I told him to put a treatment together. The treatment was basically how people be coming around when you got something good going on or girls coming around because you got money. [In the video,] a girl keeps tapping me and I keep looking over my shoulders and she keeps disappearing. It was dope.

Why did a club setting feel like the perfect place for this song to live?
Bay Swag: I listen to a song, close my eyes and whatever comes to my head, that's what we're gonna go with. I closed my eyes and I just saw a strip club … I saw the song going crazy in the club.

What can we expect of your upcoming LP?
Bay Swag: It's legendary. It's gonna be a movie. I'm not gonna lie. The last one I made was Damaged Thoughts. So I feel like I gotta come 10 times harder.

The scene of a billboard of you on your block comes with the lyrics "I put a billboard in my trenches, my brother said i shouldn't," why did he say that? Why did you do it anyway?
Bay Swag: This is where I'm from. I represent Queens. I'm stamping it. This is where I'm from. Put it in the hood. Put it in the middle of the hood. It's a bar. Love it.

You and Herbo made the music video for "Quagen" three years ago, what felt different about LAYDERR?
Bay Swag: The relationship is the same. Of course, we got closer. But even then, that's my big brother, you know?