Music
AFROPUNK Video Of The Week: RIMON’S “20/20” Is A Full Circle Moment.
AFROPUNK: You were born in Eritrea and raised in the Netherlands, how has your heritage and upbringing influenced your approach to making art?
RIMON: It made me very fluid. I love contrasts, I love duality. I feel like my upbringing has given me different perspectives in life which leads to a certain open mindedness when I make my music and art.
AP: Since the release of the amazing EP, “BBYGIRL FOCU$” what are some of the career highlights and lessons you’ve learned about the industry?
RIMON:Wow I’ve learned a lot. I was so young, so determined (still am) but truly I had no idea how this music business worked and what it meant. How much of it is about how much money and resources you have, navigating that as an independent artist was quite challenging. My highlights have been traveling the world and connecting with people that appreciate your work, I still am lost for words every time I see someone touched or emotional when they talk about how my music influenced them. It’s just so crazy. Another highlight is definitely my short film What They Called Me and now this video for 20/20. It’s just crazy how ideas turn into tangible reality. industry?
AP: The video for the new song “2020” is a heartfelt embrace saying “I see you”. What inspired you to write the song and what was the process behind making it?
RIMON: “‘20/20’ is a song I wrote as a love letter to my home – mother nature. The earth. An apology, if you will – for being so caught up in the digital world and my digital self. For me, being able to shoot the music video in Ethiopia was a full-circle moment. The true manifestation of ‘home’. Filming in certain areas was tricky. As you know, Ethiopia is in a state of turmoil and tension. Going to Ethiopia to film was seen as a risk, but I needed to do this. I wanted to shine a light on the people and the country itself – not tainted by politics, but with the warmth that I remember and hold so deep. Shooting the music video with Bleu Nuit was very important to me. They are family and ever since collaborating on ‘What They Called Me’, we knew we would make more special things together. They truly elevated ‘20/20’ and added a cinematic view that I could have never imagined when working on the first treatment. There is no one else I would have done this with.
AP: In this video you once again worked with Bleu Nuit, and chose Ethiopian people and the landscape as the subjects, what was the reason behind this?
RIMON: Even though the song is about returning to Mother Nature, it also has a double meaning of returning back home, which in my case is Eritrea and Ethiopia. So going back where my father is from, made so much sense. Also I felt like Ethiopia has hardly been represented in ways that does the beautiful people and nature justice and I kind of felt responsible to show the world the diversity and beauty of Ethiopia.
AP: Lastly, what feeling, message would you like people to take away from your music?
RIMON: As I said there’s always this positive “lesson” involved in most of my projects, so if they get that, that would be amazing. But if not, if even one sentence that I’ve written has made someone feel like “wow she articulated how I’ve been feeling” than my mission is already accomplished.
Get The Latest
Signup for the AFROPUNK newsletter
