[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPp20Z4YUgw[/youtube]
Lando Chill takes us to the sprawling desert in the new video for “Break Them Shackles,” one of the lead singles off his sophomore album The Boy Who Spoke To The Wind. If you didn’t already know, this record is heavily inspired by Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. A novel centered around the journey of self-actualization, the book even makes a cameo in Lando’s new video—complete with the 25th-anniversary cover.
We open on Lando waking up in the expanse of the desert, disoriented and shackled to an unseen force. In tune with the rest of the record, this omission is purposeful: it represents those intangible institutions that work to hold down black Americans. These despondent scenes are offset by shots of Lando splattered in gold and bursting out from the shadows. This is a moment of resistance, as Lando grabs hold of the chains around his wrists and pulls back, asserting his humanity. When Lando is stabbed, he does not spill blood. Instead, gold coats his hands and it appears he is reborn as his best self. The message is layered, but not inaccessible: break the shackles, kill the person that they’ve made you, and become who you were always meant to be.
The album is out on Mello Music Group, and you can pick up a copy here.
