ILoveMakonnen - “Rumor” (Official Video)

If you listen to the old, early ILoveMakonnen mixtapes, you’ll hear him warbling over plinked out keyboard samples with zero regard for the pitch, structure, or tone of the song. It can be an abrupt shift if you’re used to hearing his work with masterminds like Metro Boomin and Sonny Digital, but in a lot of ways, it reveals the heart of songs. Makonnen writes and croons with the same specific tenderness that made Morrissey so beloved — before he became so crotchety — and this new song “Rumor” almost sounds like a Smiths song. This “acoustic remix” off the revamped ILOVEMAKONNEN EP wasn’t on the original tape, and today he’s released a black and white video to accompany it. The sleepy clip mostly focuses in on a solitary listener who seems completely mesmerized by the music and has little regard for anything else going on around him. The fan feels like a stand-in for Makonnen himself, who is one of those artists who seems to lose himself again and again in the joy of creating. Watch the Kyle Seago-directed clip.