When Kendrick Lamar and his manager Grammy Award winning director Dave Free launched their creative company, pgLang in March 2020, fans waited with bated breathe for the artist's first move. Almost a year on, pgLang has blessed us with the announcement of its first collaboration, with fashion company Calvin Klein.
The pair shared the news of their collaboration through a series of seven short videos, all backed by unique concepts, cast and written and directed by Free himself. Filmed in Los Angeles – the city of dreams – the videos, which were posted to Instagram, feature talented young creatives including rapper Baby Keem, actors Keith Powers and Ryan Destiny, movement artist Amber Wagner, creative Travis Bennett, model Mecca Allah, and comedian Exavier. The films also feature exclusive compositions from Jahan Sweet, as well the new songs "Solo" by Brenty Faiyaz and "Patience Interlude" by Baby Keem.
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Each video presents a new narrative – some funny, some touching, some downright beautiful. The first short sees Mecca Allah elegantly ascend a spiralling staircase to a balcony outlook, with the series finale captured by a 30-second arm wrestle shot in black-and-white.
Of the project, Free shared that the creative intention behind the collaboration was to create a “Language for the people that can't find the words to express how they feel.”
In a previous interview between Lamar and Keem, the multi-Grammy winning rapper shared that pgLang “represents loyalty and trust.” Continuing, he revealed; “I’ve seen pgLang before it was even an idea that came to fruition. It’s sticking to and believing in something, even when you don’t know how it will be created, and it starts out as just a small idea. I believed in it, and I stuck to it and now everything is paying off. So I’ve seen it from when there was no idea, to now. So to me, pgLang represents loyalty and trust.”
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Head to the Calvin Klein Instagram page to watch all seven of the pgLang collaboration videos.
Image: YouTube
