"YES"

31 July 2024

2 mins 20s

YES

Business Club’s new signing, Tom Emmerson, directs the latest promo for AntsLive. In his third collaboration with the rapper, the director has broken a gorilla out of London Zoo for him, and sends the two out into the night. Their capers range from trips to a Savile Row tailor and high-end sushi restaurant, to hitting the gym together.

Though he’s new to the Club, Emmerson’s been quick to pick up on the house style of using animatronics, and it’s a slick addition to the joint creative portfolio between the artist and director (who won last year’s UKMVA for Best Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Video).

The promo’s a pastiche of classic hip hop videos, so a strip club is inevitably included in the vignettes. There’s natural comedy in the gorilla’s expression at experiencing its first lapdance, and the dancers ignoring AntsLive in favour of the hairier animal.

There is an element of having your cake and eating it, though. Even in 2024, when there are so many more interesting ideas in the boundary-pushing realm of promos than a woman’s barely-covered body, rap videos still exist to sell an idea that hasn’t much changed... whether it's within the genre or in a parody of the genre. Still, this is undeniably good fun and, that reservation aside, Emmerson has knocked it out of the park.

UK

Promos