joMi Has Nothin’ To Be “Worried” About | Official Music Video, Article + More
The last time we tapped in with joMi was after the release of his latest single “Worried” featuring Durag Snugs.
As joMi runs the marathon at his own pace, “Worried” the music video, is released and is definitely worth the wait. A perfect balance between live action and CGI (mind you, it does not look cheap!!!) the video’s story line does a great job at showing the DLR family and friends have a great time at their backyard party, not worrying about nada. No liquor store video from (__insert the name of your favorite local rapper__) the backyard party symbolizes the zero F’s joMi gives about you. Word to the party shark in the video (who’s owner was “allegedly” on acid, while riding the Shark during Burning Man).
Since our last conversation, the young talent continues to level up, being featured on YouTube’s popular channel “The Cypher Effect”, an interview feature with our playa patnas @ Home Grown Radio and even opening up for Rhythm + Flow’s very own Old Man Saxon @ San Francisco’s legendary venue Brick & Mortar Music Hall! Very good momentum for a young artist, as joMi’s overly dedication to his art and it’s quality over quantity… is paying off.
To understand the visuals, we must understand how the topic of the song originated. CrazyHood.com recently chopped it up joMi, MysFit, G.Cardona and MindBend who co-directed the music video alongside AD Films.
“Essentially, this topic of “Worried” stems from people listening to my project titled SAMO. Yeah it’s a body of work that has to do with being a minority, so of course there’s going to be political things.” joMi continues; “I don’t want to say I been labeled a political rapper, but in reality that’s not true. People tried to put me in a lane, which I get it, that’s cool, that’s a compliment because nobody could make a political song sound dope. This “Worried” song is very structured and it’s purposely the way that it is. Every single verse is contrasted from one another, the hook is way contrasted from the verses, that was just a testament that we could also make singles, not just ‘political and social’ records.” –joMi
Aesthetically the video allows the viewers and listeners to feel and believe that joMi is truly not worried about anything. Showing a party scene with the DLR team having fun, drinking with the family/friends was very fundamental to what the video is about.
“It’s showing people having fun and not worried about anything so in summary people having a party feeling like they are not worried was very monumental to what we wanted the visuals to be.” joMi says. “To take it even further, if you look at the artwork, the theme has to do with TV’s. Look at all those TV screens closely and you’ll actually see the chemical compound of Serotonin depicted in the TV. That tells you everything….”
MysFit (producer of Worried ) was born in Memphis, TN and raised in Atlanta, GA. He wanted to give joMi a very different sound, one that would make him shine outside of that box his critics were placing him in. “When it came to ‘Worried’ I wanted joMi to have that Southern feel, which he has gotten props on.” MysFit continues; “Most people may consider it to be stealing, but this sound came from a legitimate southern person, it came from me. Being a southern individual, I’m from the south and was born and bread in it. When creating ‘Worried’, it wasn’t about trying to grasp a certain audience at the time, it was about the fact that it was dope we were doing it, in that style.”
As the duo has found success working together, MysFit and joMi clearly understand each others roles and along with the rest of Dirty Laundry Records, they work as a unit, which has been key to their success. “I’m doing a producer job.” MysFit says. “Anytime I been put in a situation with him, it’s always been everybody has a role, but how can we amplify each others roles? “ MysFit continues; “When I go into that room I look at it and I say, we do what ever is best for the squad or what’s best for the song. It’s never what’s best for the individual.”
From an engineer’s standpoint, G.Cardona (who has engineered every joMi song to date) played a huge role in the creation of “Worried”. While MysFit and joMi took the record to a different level with the Southern vibe, G.Cardona’s goal was to do justice to that vision and make it come to life.
“MysFit and I went back and fourth on the production elements, we wanted to make sure there was no clashing frequencies.” G.Cardona continues; “On this particular track we found that was one of the bigger challenges. I used reductive EQ to cut unwanted frequencies from the keys and the pads, which probably took us the longest to get right. As far as vocals, I just did some minor cleaning up. I used 2 layers of compression and some EQ to get it to sound good to in my ears.”
G.Cardona continues; “I definitely think the hook is probably one of the more dope parts of the record. I like how we chopped up the vocals to sound almost as if they were sampled. We pitch shifted DuragSnugs’ vocals and we added a stutter effect and I think that’s what made it. When you listen to it you can’t help but vibe and nod your head to it, so I think we did something right.”
MysFit continues; “Shout out to G.Cardona, he has our records sounding A1. Me as a producer, I don’t have the pressure of having my beats sound A1 like a lot of producers do. I can throw a bunch of shit together do my thing and then G will take it, finesse it and make sure it sounds clear to the listener.”
“People don’t understand that this beat was created at Dirty Laundry Records, in my backyard, it was mixed in my backyard, I recorded my vocals in my backyard @ Nomad Studios.” joMi continues; “The video was shot at Dirty Laundry Records aka my backyard, every single element of that song was literally created at my house.”
“Show me anybody that has actually put in the work, to be able to showcase a good ass work of art, at a local level.” – joMi
Although we didn’t get a chance to interview AD Films who assisted with Directorial duties for ‘Worried’, we did get a chance to connect with MindBend, who’s primary role was creating the Visual FX for the video.
“Everything started with the cover art” MindBend says; “The cover art was based around joMi’s lyrics, before the cover art came out I heard his verse and it immediately sparked ideas. When I heard him say the word “Medium”, he rapped that line “I’m feeling like a fucking medium, wait! I don’t really want to communicate with these ghosts…” I started thinking about the movie WHITE NOISE. In that movie the characters used TVs, to pick up signals of the Ghosts in that movie! So the first thing I started doing was looking up TVs and then I googled the words “worried”, “anxiety” and stuff like that. “ MindBend continues; “so the chemical compound, Serotonin is the calming factor of having anxiety or being worried. So when I created the visual effects for the video it was pretty much joMi being the embodiment of Serotonin… A lot of people didn’t get that.”
“So while the graphic art shows the chemical compound of Serotonin, in the video, he becomes it.“ – MindBend
“Instead of me putting the graphical elements of Serotonin in there, I started making him glitch.” MindBend continues; “So throughout the promotion of the single with the cover art and the graphics, you only see Serotonin. But when the video comes out, he is the element of Serotonin reminding you not to worry about these things, to calm you. “
Although we have already been introduced to the sounds of joMi, “Worried” is a perfect introduction of what is to come. Call him a political rapper, label him a Mexican/Latino rapper, say whatever you want. But joMi ain’t worried bout nothin’. Stay, cold blooded.