It’s barely been a minute since A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie took his NYC-raised hustle worldwide on last June’s International Artist project, but he’s already back with another one in the form of the upcoming Hoodie SZN. And even though his ambitions have now gone truly global, it looks like A Boogie still has some love for one of his hometown’s signature artforms. In a short film introducing his latest track “Look Back At It”, A Boogie takes over a very palatial-looking theatre to perform a one-man Acapella rendition of the song.
In the visual, A Boogie opens the song humbly rapping on the streets outside of the venue before crossing the threshold into the lobby and ultimately moving onto the stage. As he switches his position from outsider to star performer, A Boogie’s rapping seems to increase in volume and energy, until the beat triumphantly kicks in at the climax. It’s all a very fitting symbol for the self-made artist’s life story, where talent on the mic was enough to jump him from a beloved local artist to his current state of global stardom. Yet A Boogie’s street-level realness appears to remain fully intact: with no audience in the theatre, he’s clearly performing to impress nobody besides himself. Watch the full video above.