Vids › The Weirdness, Part 1

Riff Raff – Introducing the Icon

2014 · Directed by Stuey Kubrick

15K Likes

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Best comments

1.“The HARDEST nonsense I ever heard.”

More comments

2.“Riff Raff just started rapping every word that came to mind!”
3.“I can't believe I like this.”

The story

Riff Raff is what happens when a performance artist gets a rap career. Born Horst Christian Simco in Houston, he landed a spot on MTV's From G's to Gents in 2009, got cut in the second episode, and walked away with enough attention – and an MTV logo tattoo – to start calling himself MTV Riff Raff. Diplo signed him to Mad Decent in 2012. Whether the act is a joke, a con or a sneaky-smart bit of slapstick is still up for debate, and that's kind of the point.

Introducing the Icon opens his debut album Neon Icon, which finally came out in June 2014 after a long string of announced-then-missed release dates. Deezus produced the beat. The Arts Desk called the track half party-starter, half light-hearted statement of intent.

The video, directed by the very appropriately named Stuey Kubrick, landed three days after the album. Blacklit clubs. Dancers under neon. Lines flashing on screen in neon type. A nonstop flood of clips that act out his words literally – corn fields, hovercrafts, weightlifting, sharks. And a cartoon Diplo shows up to lecture him about focusing on his lyrics. Good luck with that.

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