In May 2020, Canadian rappers Merkules and Evil Ebenezer teamed up to release a collaborative album titled ‘Force Of Habit’ on Merkules’ self-titled label. The album features 8 songs, 6 of which are collabs and the other 2 are solo tracks. Track 4 on the album, ‘With You’, hits a bit different to their usual hip-hop style, resulting in a slower more romantic flow which certainly appeals to a more diverse audience. In true Merkules style, he has paired this song with a bold professional lyric video to indulge us all.
Merkules is one of Canada’s most well-known rappers. The Surrey, B.C. artist has received hundreds of millions of streams and his videos ranking at over half a billion views. With 3 Western Canadian Music Award nominations, this rapper is a force to be reckoned with. Teaming up with fellow Canadian and StompDown Killaz (SDK) member, Evil Ebenezer, these two hip-hop pros gave us a versatile album.
Touching on many subjects like self reflection, success and love, which is apparent in their collaborative song ‘With You’. Stepping out of the tough-guy image that we know and love, we get a sneak peak at what appears to be a more vulnerable side to these rappers. This song is clearly written for someone very special in their lives and they are not afraid to hold back in telling her how amazing she is. This song gives me complete couple goal vibes and the respect shown for women in this track is absolutely reassuring.
Lyric videos and animated music videos are no stranger to Merkules. He definitely holds a few title belts for many of his songs when it comes to quality produced music videos and ‘With You’ is no different. Straight off the bat we are getting powerful monochromatic imagery with big fonts, fast cuts and plenty of layered movements. I love the polaroids depicting beautiful and confident women, who are totally doing a great job of representing the ideal partner. Everything remains black and white except these sexy polaroids which appear to showcase a sepia style filter and really captures our attention in every scene.
Another favourite feature of this lyric video is the eye-catching power words used to describe this woman and the font choices used. We see flashes of words like ‘Queen’, ‘Wisdom’, ‘Class’ and ‘Goddess’ which just seals the overall theme to this song and music video. The lyrics are presented in a no-nonsense bold sans serif, a wild paint stroke styled text and lastly, a sexy Gothic font. Watching this video over and over I am always seeing something new and creative. The attention to detail in every scene is apparent and provides the viewer with a cross sensory experience. The lyric video features different textured backgrounds including ripped and folded paper, smooth marble, gritty canvas and coarse textiles. I can not only hear the song, but I can also read and sing a long to the lyrics and mostly surprisingly, almost feel the video. Fading out at the end, we get to see the single art work which is just as dynamic as the lyric video.
This professional lyric video does a fantastic job at representing this hip hop style song and presenting the audience with the lyrics to sing along. The use of brawny fonts, a monochromatic colour palette and textured backgrounds is elaborate and memorable and quite clearly demonstrates how powerful a lyric video can be.
Check out Merkules & Evil Ebenezer’s lyric video for ‘With You‘ on YouTube here: