“Deathwish” is a hard-hitting and honestly brutal portrayal of the injustices on black men in America and what DJ Muggs, MF Doom, Freddie Gibbs, and animators Patric Magno and Edgar Neri have envisioned for this project. A Madhouse Press Production, this new release is a part of the DJ Muggs & MF Doom Project, “MUGGS X DOOM.”
Patric Magno and Edgar Neri bring DJ Muggs vision for this song to life. The music video draped in black and white depicts and urban city where the main character raps about “cops abusing power” and “politician scumbags” in a spoken intro to the song and asks God “to send a flood already” to wipe out all the evil in the world so that he doesn’t have to.
Using a white mask and a black hood to cover his face, he takes action on behalf of the black lives that have been taken with “zero empathy.” There are images of crimes, coffins, and scary masked faces smiling and blinking at the screen. Vengeance is the name of the music video as the animated main character in the short film can be seen “taking care of” the murderers of black men.
At the end of the video, the man is seen crossing names off of a hitlist—the list contains names of those who murdered innocent black men such as Oscar Grant and Trayvon Martin. Some may say that this video is portraying accurate justice, a life for a life.
The video is more ways than one powerful with the black and white, the video is stripped down and grimy and dirty at its best, in a good way. It is also subtle, nuanced, and draws the viewer into the experience. Watch the video below: