Last night, ScHoolboy Q revealed the tracklist and dropped a teaser trailer for his upcoming album Blank Face. Now, he’s shared a new track called “By Any Means” and a music video to boot.
The lengthy video is nearly nine minutes long — though features over six minutes of dialogue and footage that sees Q and his crew hanging out, smoking, hitting up a pawn shop, and running red lights (while early teaser track “THat Part” subtly plays in the background).
They finally arrive at the cross street of 51st and Hoover — near where Q grew up in south central Los Angeles — and as the color quite literally fades from his face while he takes a hit of a freshly rolled blunt, the music finally kicks in.
The song’s unrelenting message is that you can “get yours by any means,” which the rapper repeats on the chorus. He proceeds to rap of all the “means” he can and will take: “I’mma rob that store/ I’mma kick down doors/ I’mma shoot my gun,” before affirming “I’mma heal my soul.” As the video continues, the scene around Q and his friends turns bleak and fades to black and white while Q sits blank faced himself — fully aware of the harsh realities that come with taking such means.
The video ends — at least Part 1 does —with a car rolling up, in the middle of the night, to the pawn shop they previously visited. Before anything else can happen though, the screen fades to black and reads “To Be Continued…” Much like the release of the album, we’ll just have to wait patiently for the rest.
Blank Face arrives July 8th.
