WHEN multi-hyphenated rappers Alif and SonaOne released the lead single Obvious off of their highly-anticipated joint album Detail, it signified an equal coming together of two prominent names in the scene.
The breezy pop song, which dropped on Oct 26, serves as a reminder that it’s easy to get lost in a sea of mundane or to be held back from pursuing life simply because of our technological screens.
According to Singaporean Alif - formerly of hip-hop duo Sleeq - and Malaysian SonaOne, the positive message evolved to resonate with anybody who needs a confidence boost, when the two were exploring ideas for the music video.
Nasri Lian presented the concept of the music video after listening to the track “without us telling him what the song was about,” explained Alif. “Geat guy and great director.”
SonaOne added: “He took it to a whole different level that was not only way denser, but at the same time a lot more accessible to a broader audience.
“Even when we approached the subject with the song, we were like, how do we write this in a way that doesn’t sound prissy, or in a way that doesn’t sound like we’re trying to sh*t on people’s thoughts or whatever.
The local producer continued: “Eventually it became a catchy pop song because that’s the best way of getting any concept into anybody’s brain.
The message, essentially telling people to “wake up and look around you,” addresses an issue that the Sony-Kartel artists themselves face.
Alif said: “It’s a very crazy message we’re trying to put across right now ... because we go through the same sh*t also.
“We’re always on our phones and we also get distracted sometimes by social media, so we’re in this with everyone else in the music video.
While Obvious is an earworm-inducing pop song, it does not indicate the sound of the entire 15-track album. In fact, it is the last track appearing on Detail that sonically ties the entire joint-project together.
The track is a skit where the two talk about the album, and from what they describe, a dramatic death, was supposed to play after Obvious, back when it was intended to play at the beginning of Detail.
“Like we get shot. You hear the bodies drop,” said Alif, before they both launch into soft mock screams of mimicking the scene.
The ‘death’ was to symbolise an end to what most might assume of the two Sony-Kartel rappers’ artistic sound.
With the skit scrapped and the track now at the end of the album, the rappers used the music video to translate the story that they are really in control of what’s going on.
According to SonaOne: “We decided that if we wanted to still go with the [storyline] - like Alif and SonaOne, what people think of them as people and as artists of a certain sound - we wanted to kill that off first.”
They achieved this at the end of the music video for Obvious, where the duo can be seen sitting in the director’s chair looking into a TV that looks into a screen of the scene.
Alif said: “The song ends with us being in control of everything, so the song stops there, and then it’s us in control, and then you have the rest of the album.
“[We] want people to try and ask themselves what the f**k is going on here? What was this whole video about?” added SonaOne.
The video sees the two ‘travel through time’ from the 90s to present day, first being seen performing on TV by two people on a couch, before the Alif and SonaOne step out into the real world to join them.
Incidentally, eagle-eyed netizens noticed that two of the costumes in the video - an orange jersey worn by Alif, and a white-patterned red shirt worn by SonaOne - were similar to costumes worn by Joe Flizzow and Malique, members of iconic hip-hop duo Too Phat.
As it turns out, both outfits were provided to Alif and SonaOne by Joe himself. The similarities only struck them when they were shooting the music video.
Alif explained that their purpose was to have three different eras - the 90s, the millennium, and present day - represented in the video. They had great difficulty finding suitable clothes from the two earlier time periods.
Alif added: “[The only person close to us] who can get [the clothes] in mint condition is Joe.”
What was most surprising was that the orange jersey worn by Alif was actually once worn by Malique.
“We didn’t even know that my jersey was the exact same jersey that Malique wore,” beamed Alif.
SonaOne added: “And we were like: ‘Why does Joe have it?’ It turns out Malique borrowed it from Joe.”
