Chicago native musicians Jamila Woods and Chance The Rapper have released a new music video and a “making of” mini-documentary for Woods’ dreamy track “LSD” from her recently re-released debut LP, HEAVN. The song’s official music video seeks to flip the script on the current prevailing narrative of Chicago, a narrative that predominantly paints the city as a dangerous wasteland of guns, drugs, and gang violence.
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While Chicago does, without a doubt, suffer from the ills for which it’s become known, the two Windy City-native artists seek to illustrate that those struggles don’t fully negate the innocence and beauty that exists within the fray. The “LSD” music video highlights the layers in Chicago’s identity with scenes of children, families, and loving, vibrant communities. “LSD” is an homage to Lake Shore Drive, the scenic waterside thoroughfare that runs through the city. In addition, as Woods explains, the song is a sort of nod to “tripping off the happiness of being in Chicago in the summer with our family and friends.” You can watch the official video for “LSD” by Jamila Woods featuring Chance The Rapper below:
As NPR comments, “LSD” “distills summertime into backyard barbecues and colorful, reflective moods.” An equally immense amount of love and care went into the making of the video, which was directed in collaboration with students of Chicago Public Schools, for whom Chance has done so much over the last year.
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An accompanying making-of-the-video documentary details how students from the same school system to which Chance donated $1 million earlier this year submitted their own “treatments” and worked alongside VAM Studio filmmakers to “portray a Chicago of their own telling, that speaks to the good and not the bad aspects of their community. The resulting contrast, full of plastic-cup parties, walks by the beach, dreamy selfies and selfless neighbors (with Chance manning the grill) illustrates what happens when marginalized communities get to shape their own story.” You can hear the stories of Woods and all the students involved in making the video in the making-of documentary for Jamila Woods and Chance The Rapper’s “LSD” below:
[h/t – NPR]