Fans have been patiently waiting for Joey Bada$$’s debut album, B4.DA.$$, for a while now, and early Tuesday morning (September 30), he gave them a taste of what to expect. The New York native dropped the audio and a new video for “Christ Conscious,” which he calls one of his “favorite records off of the album.”
“That record to me is like, ‘I’m here,’” he explained to MTV News. “The whole idea of the song is, I’m building up, channeling my energy, getting stronger and stronger until one day I finally evolve. And that’s what it is in the video: Me ascending to this next level.”
The visuals, which were shot in his native Brooklyn, find the buzzing MC walking the streets before ultimately rising off his feet and into the sky. Throughout, the directors, M-I-E, interspersed visually captivating special effects that give the video an aesthetic that balances gritty and futuristic. And though he credits the directors for bringing his vision to life, the Cinematic Music Group MC says he “visualized the whole video instantly” when he heard the track.
(Watch the ‘Christ Conscious’ video above)
And exactly how he heard the track — which is produced by Zoe Supreme — is actually an odd but awesome story.
“I went on YouTube, ’cause back before I got on, I used to always go on YouTube and look for beats,” he says. “Like, just search J. Dilla stuff. What I did this time was I was like, Yo, I actually got a name now. So I typed in ‘Joey Bada$$ type beat,’ and that was literally the first beat that popped up, and as soon as I heard it, I started freestyling the song.”
Immediately, he knew he wanted to use it.
“I reached out to the kid, I was like, ‘Yo, delete this video now. This is mine!’” he laughed.
Though there’s still no exact timetable on when the album will drop, Joey did confirm that it’s finished.
“At this point, the album is completed,” he told MTV News. “[I finished it] literally two days ago. It’s been pretty much completed for a while, but it’s like when you make ice cream, it’s that cherry on the top that really brings it all together. The whole time, I’ve been searching for sprinkles, and now I got it nicely decorated and everything, so it’s ready to go.”
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