Lady Leshurr has released a video to Youtube for her song ‘Fake Flex,’ the third single from her ‘Astronaut EP,’ which was released 18th of December 2020. The video matches the lyrical content of the song which tells the story of Leshurr who won the Queen’s ‘British Empire Medal (BEM) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to music and charity,’ and renting out a mansion to celebrate. The video ends with the rapper jumping into a swimming pool with the moral of the story being not to ‘Fake Flex.’
The video, which was ‘Directed by Spike Leesh. Shot & edited by Jay Goodz,‘ and ‘Produced by Dusty Goodz,’ is simply filmed with a single camera following the rapper as she moves around the mansion telling the story portrayed in the lyrics, yet features a number of nice touches like freeze frames as well as some typical characteristics which have been cropping up in rap videos recently such as the lyrics being displayed on screen in sync with the music so that the effect of a lyric video is amalgamated into the broader music video.
Lady Leshurr has managed to remain productive throughout 2020, despite facing many of the same issues as all artists have this year, including tours and gigs being cancelled and the usual face-to-face interactions with fans being made impossible. The rapper managed to take inspiration for the year’s events, releasing her second album full length album ‘Quarenqueen,’ in June. The album, which follows 2013’s Mona Leshurr, deals entirely with themes current to 2020 including songs with titles like ‘Quarantine Speech,’ ‘Isolation,’ ‘Ms Rona,’ and ‘Lockdown.’
On top of this, continuing the productivity despite circumstances, Lady Leshurr has treated fans to an EP released in December called ‘Astronaut EP.’ The EP, many will be relieved to know is not an album written entirely about coronavirus, a subject which the vast majority of us by now are well and truly sick of, the EP instead deals with some of the more familiar tropes found in rap music with tracks like ‘Money,’ ‘DIV,’ and ‘Fake Flex,’ oozing with acerbic wit and attitude.
As well as putting out a high quality album, an EP and winning a British Empire Medal, 2020 has brought more pleasant surprises for fans of Lady Leshurr. According to Radio Times ‘Lady Leshurr is joining the Dancing on Ice 2021 line-up.’ While Dancing on Ice might not seem like the most obvious show for a rap artist to feature on, one must ask the question, why not?
The articulate Lady Leshurr has never been one for living up to stereotypes and is famously headstrong, even turning down a record deal with Kanye West, she has done much to create an image of respectability in the sometimes shady world of rap and helped bring the genre closer to the mainstream and by extension, the Dancing on Ice watching public. With the UK now embarking upon its third national lockdown with only a vague end date in sight, fans of Lady Leshurr will have to wait some time before seeing the ‘Astronaut EP,‘ performed live.
