Felip has finally reached his final form with his ROCKSTA music video.
After giving us crumbs for months, Ken Suson of SB19, who goes by his solo stage name Felip, dropped his highly-anticipated music video for ROCKSTA. It’s his third official single after the mythology-inspired song Bulan and it was packed with a lot of references from fashion and music. Set in mostly black and white, we see monochromatic scenes of Ken singing to a blazing microphone while spitting bars, dripped in black paint and wearing an electrifying number of outfits. It’s sort of an homage to different hiphop artists from different generations. From Kanye West’s iconic face masks to Balenciaga’s runway collections, we’ve dissected all the references we’ve spotted in ROCKSTA by Felip below.
READ MORE: Here’s Why Pablo of SB19 Is About To Be One of the Top Filipino Music Producers Soon
KANYE WEST’S YEEZUS TOUR FACE MASKS
In most of the scenes in ROCKSTA, Ken wore an embellished face mask that was reminiscent of rapper Kanye West’s custom Margiela masks that he wore all throughout his Yeezus tour. NGL, Ken wearing them again for his music video made us long for more high fashion rap videos and concerts again. And just like what Ye himself says, “I miss the old Kanye.”
MISSY ELLIOT’S MICHELIN MAN BOMBER JACKET IN THE RAIN MUSIC VIDEO
Ken’s leather oversized bomber jacket reminds us a whole lot of one of the most memorable hiphop MVs in the 90s. Name a soul who has never seen the unforgettable “Michelin man” look OG rapper Missy Elliott wore for her The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly) video. We’ll wait.
THE BLACK TEARS SCENE IN G-DRAGON’S COUP D’ETAT MV
How else can you commit to the rockstar role if you don’t let yourself drip in a puddle of paint? It’s Ken Suson and K-pop artist G-Dragon’s common denominator, as seen on the Coup D’Etat music video he released nine years ago.
THE RUNWAY REFERENCES
Ken is big on fashion with his highly experimental style and it shows. For ROCKSTA, we spotted some runway references in his music video. Of course, it was highly-coded in Balenciaga S/S 2023 and 2022, and a dab of Raf Simons F/W 1998.
KENDRICK LAMAR’S HUMBLE MUSIC VIDEO
In the early scenes of ROCKSTA, we see a masked Ken together with his dancers in formation wearing all black and oversized shades. It’s a moment that reminds us of the part in rapper Kendrick Lamar’s music video for HUMBLE where he’s surrounded by men all bobbing their heads to his every bar.
THE YEEZUS TOUR
Ken Suson’s particular with the choreography obviously because he’s an all-around performer. When it comes to theatrics, we’re pretty sure Kanye West’s Yeezus Tour was on the moodboard. Just rap artist things.
CONTINUE READING: In Palayo, Ken Suson Raps In Full Bisaya and Nails The Cropped Blazer Look
