Vanilla is Black - Mezcal

JUL 01 2024 · 12:00

Vanilla is Black - Mezcal (2024) Era: Post-Streaming Neo-Soul/Hip-Hop Renaissance (2024) - Era of genre-fluid Black music reclaiming funk, soul, and communal joy through major-label indie aesthetics on Def Jam Recordings High curatorial value as a time-stamped artifact of the 2024 neo-soul/feel-good R&B wave under a major label umbrella. Documents the artistic reinvention of Chuck Inglish, a figure credited with shaping the blog-rap era, within a new trio context. The video's warm amber palette, rapid editing, and communal performance aesthetic offer a representative visual vocabulary for the 'outside song' sub-genre of mid-2020s Black popular music. Context: Released April 26, 2024 via Def Jam Recordings, 'Mezcal' is the debut single from Vanilla is Black, a trio composed of Chuck Inglish (co-founder of The Cool Kids), Kevin Roosevelt, and Kenneth Wright. The group occupies a culturally significant intersection: blog-era hip-hop veterans recalibrating toward feel-good R&B and funk in an industry dominated by streaming metrics. Their sound has been described as having 'the funky spirit of Parliament, yet room to experiment like the Gorillaz.' The track's title references mezcal as a communal, spiritually resonant beverage, and the video leans into a sun-soaked, day-party lexicon that positions the song as a summer social anthem, consistent with Chuck Inglish's own framing of it as an 'outside song' and a 'poolside jam.' Director notes: Multiple targeted searches returned no credible source naming a director for the 'Mezcal' music video. The video was released April 26, 2024 as the debut single for Vanilla is Black on Def Jam Recordings. Band member Chuck Inglish noted in an interview with Ones To Watch that 'shooting the video helped me see it in a new way,' confirming a conventional on-location production, but no director credit was surfaced.