Rizzla’s “Iron Cages/Twitch Queen” Video Depicts Our Dystopic Present

Earlier this fall, Fade To Mind producer Rizzla premiered a brittle new pop song "Iron Cages," off his EP of the same name. Today, the Brooklyn-based producer is back with visuals for the track, which switches halfway into another twisted track from the EP, "Twitch Queen." Images of outer space and shuttle launches are juxtaposed with footage of riots and police brutality. The distorted splices of 100+ YouTube clips flash past the eyes to Rizzla's icy, fragmented beats. It feels like a vision of a dystopic future, except it's our present.

"'Iron Cages' is the story of an unidentified protagonist(s) who seek to escape from earth due to the ongoing collapse of society," the video's director Yulan Grant told The FADER. "Playing off of the undulating rhythms of the titular track, the video ebbs and flows with a feeling of relaxed calamity and the perhaps foolish hope for utopia elsewhere. While drifting, the protagonist(s) encounters a vaguely ominous orb of light just in the distance as the second track bellows 'I want to corrupt you tonight.' The audience is then immediately transported into scenes of violence, police brutality and abandonment. The charged momentum of the beat fuels the disaster and abjection that’s taking place on screen, showing the need for this 'Iron Cage.' The footage serves as one of the artifacts that has survived."

Iron Cages is out now (order it here). If you're in L.A., head to Rizzla's release party on October 16 (tickets).