jean dawson channels his dreams in the ‘bruise boy’ video

Is Jean Dawson the future or just the bleeding edge of the present? The 24-year-old is one of the current crop of an artist who embody the intriguing ambiguity of our digital, splintered, and increasingly genre-nonconforming world. His music is hip-hop, alt-rock, pop, and electronica all at once, and his experience as a bi-racial kid with African-American and Mexican parentage gives him a misfit’s inclusive perspective.

Dawson’s first single and video of 2020 is “Bruise Boy” a trippy example of his ability to effortlessly blend genres. This time it’s in service of something of a love song. “You saw my dreams and you saw your face,” he sings to an unnamed paramour. The Zachary Bailey and Mikayel-directed video itself is a dreamscape featuring a digitized Dawson among palm trees, in the desert running down an ominous road in the night time with only his eyes and 3M fabric aglow. Is Dawson the future or the present? All signs point to “yes.”