A man in a lean panda costume sways alone, among the passed out attendees of a surreal suburban house party. A melancholic singer sits in a bloodbath and wanders around the suburbs with blood on his white T-shirt. A beautiful young woman takes a shower in what appears to be a different house, but then her kitchen and the bathtub - and the panda head - are inexplicably spliced into the same space. She dies, with an arrow - from an unknown source - piercing through her brain.
This is Japanese-Australian rapper George "Joji" Miller 's first proper music video since he left his ludicrous 'Pink Guy' and 'Filthy Frank' personas behind him, and it does not disappoint. Like his previous tracks "rain on me" and "i don't wanna waste my time", Joji's new aesthetic traffics in the downtempo confessionalism of the 'sad boy' rap genre. He juxtaposes full-bodied hip-hop beats against gentle piano notes, mellow harmonies, and laidback rapping. In "will he", Joji buries his envy towards his ex new's lover ('Will your tongue still remember the taste of my lips? (my lips, my lips, my lips)') and acknowledges his shortcomings during their relationship ('Will he treat you like shit, just the way, that I did?'). He hopes that she is 'all safe', while wallowing in a pool of regret, despair and self-pity.
The song's lyrics are relatively straightforward, but the mood and atmosphere it evokes suggest something more elusive. In a press release, Joji shed some light on the track's autobiographical inspirations: "it’s just a good old ballad about losing someone except you’re also a little crazy as well. Maybe you both were lol. It’s important to be honest about how toxic we are". From the looks of it, emotional transparency will be a dominant characteristic of his debut EP In Tongues, which will be released on November 3 via 88rising.
