RMR ft Future & Lil Baby ‘Dealer’ by Sherif Higazy

From the album Drug Dealing Is A Lost Art, RMR’s new video for the Dealer remix, directed by Sherif Higazy, manifests that motto into fruition.

In the video Higazy animates a number of classical works into moving image. RMR and guest rappers Future and Lil Baby are superimposed into neoclassical and baroque paintings, combining fine art with rap music. With these images, RMR is able to draw a parallel with the lost fine art and a contemporary culture that seems to have been forgotten. From Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps (1801) to The Sampling Officials (1662) by Rembrandt, RMR inhabits these various scenes with his trademark ski mask.

The modern soon comes into contact with the traditional in the form of a helicopter crashing into other neoclassical works like Rubens’ The Fall of Phaeton. While some images are more static than others, Ludolf Backhuysen’s Ships in Distress in a Heavy Storm (1690) is brought to life, cutting between images of RMR as Perseus. Future also makes his appearance as the statue of Pharaoh Mentuhotep II, while Lil Baby becomes Augustus of Prima Porta. The final image portrays RMR as Lucas Cranach’s Saint Maurice, a holy figure.

From this, the rappers equate themselves with regal figures, putting themselves in the place of these historical icons. Rap and the culture that surrounds it is elevated and given a platform to be celebrated in the same way as fine art.