Five years after the death of modern troubadour Leonard Cohen, director Daniel Askill is out with a haunting video for “Puppets,” off Cohen’s 2019 posthumous album, Thanks for the Dance.
Shot in black and white, the video follows a lonely figure kitted out like Cohen — played by actor Bobbi Salvör Menuez — as they fall to their knees in the New York City streets, self-immolating as loose papers litter the cobblestones.
“Cohen has an incredible ability to create a bridge between the sublime and the prosaic — the metaphysical and political,” Askill said in a statement. “In ‘Puppets,’ he does that while addressing dark themes with a poetic insight. This video for ‘Puppets’ has been born out of a wonderful ongoing dialogue with [his son] Adam Cohen. … This film follows the symbolic journey of a single figure through darkness toward a transcendence. In many ways, it is visually pointing to the idea that Leonard often beautifully evokes in different ways — that the darkness and the light of our experience is deeply entangled — and maybe at a fundamental level they are in fact one and the same.”
“Puppets” — which Rolling Stone deemed a Song You Need to Know in 2019 — is an iteration of a poem Cohen published in 2006’s Book of Longing. Predicting Trump’s infamous “no puppet” quote 10 years before, the song mediates on good, evil, and control (“German puppets burnt the Jews”), war and government (“Puppet presidents command/Puppet troops to burn the land”), and all manner of darkness and light.
Hit-Boy stepped into a more energetic and party driven sound on his latest single "Franchise Boy," released exclusively through YouTube. The record leans on a smooth and stripped back soul sample while also nodding to Dem Franchise Boyz and their classic track "White Tee." Hit-Boy rides the production effortlessly, delivering confident bars packed with flexes about his success and high end lifestyle. The song blends hints of Jersey club rhythms with touches of Miami bass influence, giving the track an addictive and upbeat feel. "Franchise Boy" feels like a strong preview of what could be another exciting run of music from Hit-Boy.
Release Date: Monday, May 18
Genre: Hip-Hop
Album: N/A
N***as had said it was love,
But it wasn't love, I'm really above
The s**t you be talking, I'm floating and walking
In Margiela runners, you won't see them often
