Sex, drugs, and… waterfalls? When you’re in Microphone Phelps’ world, you learn to expect the unexpected, and that extends to his choice of metaphors. In the case of “Waterfall,” from his recently released full-length debut The Grand Design, the aquatic gush of the eponymous body of water stands in for the erotic flush of a woman’s body. The track’s narcotic production, provided by Phelps’ Grand Design collaborator djkage, have been given equally hypnotic visuals courtesy of another Detroit duo — Andrew Miller and Jamin Townsley — who’re better known as The Right Brothers.
The visuals for “Waterfall,” which premiered last Tuesday at Tangent Gallery during the release party for The Grand Design, came together quickly, according to Phelps. “[The Right Brothers] killed it. They did it in a surprisingly short amount of time for what they needed to do.” Most of the footage was already assembled from trips Miller took in the past two years to Iceland and France, and the shots of Phelps rapping to camera were filmed just prior to the release.
For Phelps, “Waterfall” is his paean to the female form: “I just started thinking of different ways to express, like, my love for a female, her body, and just everything about women… ‘I wanna make your water fall…’ Oceans, rivers, you know?” These references float over djkage’s aqueous beat alongside other, more overt allusions that push the number from merely suggestive to straight-up sexual.
For such an avowedly carnal cut, The Right Brothers’ video avoids the NSFW tag by splicing scenes of Phelps rapping with footage of Iceland’s pristine, primordial landscape and dreamy shots of a young woman travelling about France. It’s reminiscent of such clips as Bjork’s “Joga” or even Taylor Swift’s “Begin Again,” but with the inimitable style that the Detroit filmmakers are known for. Plus, with Microphone Phelps’ liquid flow guiding the cascade of images to its climax, there should be no question about who’s released one of the best videos of the year so far. Check it out below: