Hamilton, Ontario rapper Emay has been working on a debut album called Ilah for the past three years, producing the entire effort in addition to writing knotty bars. Today, the video for “Bakkah: The History of Humankind” premieres on The FADER. The glitchy visuals set in a desolate gas station match the stuttering and smudged production (I'm really feeling this Bizzy Bone sample at the beginning). As Emay spits philosophical, a figure decked out in riot gear does some disjointed krumping next to him.

ADVERTISEMENT

"This new song was initially just a poem about humanity as a whole," Emay told The FADER in an email. "When it began to rhyme I basically just ran with it. It was also a great opportunity for me to experiment with my writing as I was always self-conscious about using a more poetic/metaphorical style of writing so with this track I allowed myself to get completely lost in that form.

"For the video me and the director, Aaron Hall, bounced a lot of ideas off of each other and eventually Aaron thought of using riot gear for the video. To me the video is a battle displaying my ideological development and the conflict of ideas taking over and building off of one another. Much love to Aaron Hall and Dujean Williams for creating that with me. My beliefs and ideas about the world are constantly evolving and developing; this isn't an overnight process, but one that takes a decade or maybe even a lifetime."