Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat
Wu-Tang Clan producer/MC RZA and Interpol guitarist Paul Banks, who have come together on their newest collaboration project Banks & Steez, have just released their newest music video to the duos recent single “Love + War”, featuring fellow Wu-Tang member Ghostface Killah, which was played yesterday on the Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 show on Apple Music. Though the two artist come from totally different backgrounds, they have been working the last three year in order to produce an album together. This release of “Love and War”‘s video signifies that the beginning of something special out of the two artist.
Released via Pitchfork, the video was directed by Arms Race production house, who seemed to have been inspired by the work of Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs”,which stemmed from the past work that RZA and Tarantino did together. The video’s opening scene fades in to a dark warehouse, gangsters dragging some sort of victim to be interrogated and tortured, panning on to Banks & Steez, Steez is yammering off in Bank’s ear about his problems in his life, and once he is done talking for quite some time, he looks at Banks and says “you know what, you talk too much”, giving the viewer a small light-hearted before serious business starts and the song truly begins.
Music slowly rises to Paul Banks instrumental rock style and vocals “if all is fair in love and war, what are you keeping score for”, leading into Ghostface Killah slamming down the rap of the track, and continuing on with scenes resembling a Japanese “Reservoir Dogs” .
“For love sometimes we find ourselves at war and the combatants may do anything to win,” RZA says of the song. “For me love is worth fighting for, as long as love is not lost.”
RZA mentioned in an interview with Rolling Stones how the duo began working on music back in 2013, after RZA’s manager asked him who he would want to collaborate on an album with he said “When I met Paul, I recognized the New York energy he has as a music artist. We got to know each other playing chess and vibing out in the studio. Our talents connected in a unique way and we started writing songs. The outcome was something distinctively different from my previous work, yet with another layer of cool.”
Banks & Steez intend on releasing their new album later on in the year, however, fans will have the opportunity to see the duo on stage this upcoming summer, as they plan to hit up a few festival stages to preview and support their upcoming LP.
Banks & Steez Official 2016 Tour:
08/27-08/28 – FYF Music Festival – Los Angeles, CA
09/23-09/26 – Life is Beautiful Music & Arts Festival – Las Vegas, NV
09/30-10/02 + 10/07-10/09 – Austin City Limits Music Festival – Austin, TX
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