Premiere: OKENYO debuts a colourful clip for latest single, Buckle Up

Header image by Kate Williams.

OKENYO's bold and confident snarl has become one of our favourites in Australian hip-hop over the years, with the Sydney rapper stepping forward as one of the scene's most versatile and important. She's an artist able to adapt to whatever production she approaches, whether it be the quick-paced percussion on her 2018 single HANG YOUR HAT or the blaring, triumphant brass of WOMAN'S WORLD - "an unapologetic anthem for women, declaring that the future is female" above heavy hip-hop beats and blaring brass sections. The single, and her 2018 The Wave EP in which it was featured, were vital in setting OKENYO up as one of the country's most explosive names, something she's continuing into 2019 with the release of Buckle Up.

Produced alongside go-to collaborator Lionel Towers, Buckle Up is a single that encourages you to do just that. It's a wild, fierce single that unites slick bass grooves with hazy melodies promoting nostalgia of old-fashioned jazz/soul sounds reinvented and pushed forward into 2019, sliding through with a sound comparable to Anderson .Paak. Lyrically, the single carries the boldness we've come to love from OKENYO in the past, with the musician saying that it's a song that signifies "a change in me," as she explains: "It’s intimate, but confident and bold all at the same time. I wanted to explore the art of love by verbalising how we relate through our bodies, the tension and release. I love the freedom and elation in this song, it’s joy unbound."

Today, we premiere the single's official video clip, which layers the single's bold sound with colourful visuals directed by Kate Cornish. It's full of the confidence and swagger that OKENYO's music oozes with, whisked together with clever animation that really cements everything that encompasses OKENYO as an artist. Watch the clip below, and stay tuned for more to come as OKENYO gears up to make her presence known in a scene guilty for sleeping on her.

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