SA musician Sipho the Gift has always been quite a different ball of energy within the game especially when you focus on the details surrounding his music. Last year he dropped off his iNDiGO album and since then its reach amongst the people has steadily been making an impact. Today Sipho dropped off his highly anticipated video for ‘BOY’ which is a song off iNDiGO and with the release of this visual masterpiece being celebrated, HYPE editor took a moment to discuss the video, It’s message and how it all came together with Sipho the Gift himself.
I guess my first question is more of a reaction of the video… I was firstly captivated by narration of the video. Definitely a inspirational offering. iNDiGO has like 10 tracks, why did you decide to shoot for BOY?
Thank you bro. The idea was to be as cinematic as possible when I wrote this screenplay. It’s the one song that best translated what iNDiGO was about. And it gave me a chance to tell a little about my story, what motivates me and what my influences were coming up.
Breakdown the roles in this film. Does the boy represent you? Are you “big brothering” yourself here too? Atleast that’s how I perceived it…
So the boy played by Nhlanhla Gongotha plays a younger me and I play his older brother/role model like a character that tries to have some positive influence in his life. The other character, played by Aybee Musa is a character that represents the other side of things: a number of negative influences tugging at the boy.
Huh you mean the other character seen on the screen?
Yeah right at the start of the video.
What were some of issues that your younger self went through that perhaps a first one viewer might miss?
Well, I grew up without a dad in the house, so I always struggled with the construct of manhood. I tried to emulate what u saw on tv or whoever was around and older. Some of those weren’t the best examples. I can imagine that’s the case for a lot of young men and boys. Just the idea of struggling with defining themselves. There were also confidence issues and I was meek for a long time because of it.
It’s interesting how you’ve voiced out how iNDiGO was written in a state of peace, taking your previous response to my question, was it peaceful or easy displaying that moment in your life in song?
In retrospect yeah, because now I’m that older/wiser brother laying a hand on the boy’s shoulder. That was the idea with both the song and the video. It’s cathartic
Video was directed by Emilie Badenhorst, what brought you two together to bring this visual to life? And how was it working together?
We’ve actually been trying to work together for years, the right idea just never came about. So when I sent her the treatment/idea it was exciting that we found something that we both agreed would mean something. I’m a fan of her work and the meticulousness with which she goes about her business in all her videos. And she has a good team around her as well. It was dope man. They made it really easy and never once wanted to change or taint the story I wanted to tell with this video
How important are visuals to you? Because in SA it’s only a few that take that form very seriously…
I love cinematography and the language of translating something visually so I take visuals very seriously, but often times the independent budget doesn’t match up to my lofty dreams and vision so we make due with what we have in creative ways. That’s why I’ve had so few videos throughout the years. I’d rather save up the money and do one thing right
A month ago your dropped ‘KWEDiNi’, ‘BOY’ next of course, you planning on releasing more visuals from iNDiGO after this?
I think I’m done with iNDiGO after this. I might change my mind but I’m pretty sure I’m on to other things after this. I’ve got a few projects ready to go so it’s all about those after this.
Ayt just to conclude bro, how are you dealing with this lock down situation, especially as an artist?
I’ve been putting my head down, engineering future projects and brainstorming ideas for more music. That’s honestly the best thing I’ve found to cope with it all B…