Speaking of Van Hunt, here’s a just-released video. Glad to see that there’s still more creative coming out of his camp to support this album. As Marc Fort noted in his review, it’s certainly one that deserves a wider audience.
That said, I will admit to a slight issue with this video. I don’t like that he’s chosen to focus on these two white faces. See, I’m very aware of the impact of visual images. We’re all creating iconography these days. In this video, what we’re left with is a default, yet again, to whiteness representing an everyman condition. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know the full story behind the video. But, if it doesn’t really matter to the story, why NOT have the audience spend a little over 3 minutes looking at some lovingly photographed brown faces?
I get that black artists should feel free to be post-black. That is, as Toure aptly defines it, to be rooted in the black experience, create out of it, but sometimes not. It’s all well and good, but I still have a brown daughter who wants blonde Barbie for Christmas. So, yes, this kind of thing still matters.
Anyway, here’s the video:
