Into the Light: Shad "Brother (Watching)"

Look outside, it's a beautiful new day...


Shad "Brother (Watching)"
dir. by Ed Gass-Donnelly
Shad is surrounded by black. He is speaking of black people, and thus he is appropriately framed by the color around him. But he is also inundated with images of black people which are confining, limiting and defeated. Images which are emitted by the TV screens everywhere, by the media which continues to pigeon-hole him and his people, and which are consumed by impressionable youth.

The Canadian rapper wants to open doors, but rather than consciously breaking the few molds society creates for minorities, he asks his audience to simply be themselves. By ignoring the stereotypes, and simply pursuing your own dreams, he suggests you will be going against expectations. It's a message which is underlined by the images of people struggling to emerge; particularly the piano player who begins inside the TV but ends up outside, on his own, free.

Thus Shad continues to "watch," not only to see how the television misrepresents black people, but to also observe how the next generation of black youth grow up - to see where they take us next. The director and Shad are also asking the viewer to look at something other than the TV (which is symbolically burnt), movies and even YouTube - he wants us to see beyond the screen; to seek out the truth about ourselves, and each other. The video ends with the rapper walking out on the darkness, and into the real light of day.