Kweku Collins • "Stupid Rose"

Over the course of the last year or so, Closed Sessions lone Chicago rap signee Kweku Collins has emerged as one of the most understood and thought-provoking voices to do his thing locally or anywhere for that matter. Such is the reason I wrote about him for our May cover story around the release of his impressive debut project, Nat Love that has gotten plenty of repeat business on my iTunes library in the time since. The standout track from that project, "Stupid Rose" finally received a visual rendering as well, dropping just a couple hours ago.

This one, shot by Cody LaPlant in Milwaukee earlier this year serves as a sort of visual storybook for the message of the song, ever present from the onset of the first jumping piano rhythms in the track itself. The first music video we've gotten from Collins on this project, it arrives well-timed and possessing real artistic value, with inspiration coming from movies like 'Taxi Driver' and 'Napoleon Dynamite'. Since being released, Nat Love has garnered best new music honors not only from those of us at TheseDays, but across the music spectrum and "Stupid Rose" has definitely been a driving force behind that, even popping up on local radio from time to time with DJ MoonDawg. We couldn't be more proud of Collins' ascent and can't wait to see where things lead from here. For now though? Enjoy the video and get into the project if you haven't already.