By Tyler Bunzey
July 1, 2022
Charlotte’s own Roc Nation signee, Reuben Vincent, teased fans with another single from his upcoming album. “Look What You Did” is one of his most personal records to date. Accompanied by Winston Salem’s multi-talented Sonny Miles, Vincent muses on love and loss over floating synth chords and a gently chucking rhythm guitar, courtesy of Soul Council producer Kash who sampled George Pettus’ live instrumentals.
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“Pour some Remy in this cup and pour my feelings out,” Vincent raps in his opening bars. “As I start to open up it starts just spilling out.” His feelings– about romance, loyalty, authenticity, and honesty– percolate through each verse, only to be punctuated by Sonny Miles’ bitter, almost mournful chorus: “Oh, you know I held you down when you needed, but now you want to run around on me?”
The visuals, released the same day as the track, features Vincent and Miles in stark opposite frames: either alone in their respective bedrooms or with their girlfriends, played by models Peace Okpoko and Clarke Shead. The Patrick Lincoln-directed video explores the song’s musings on the inherent risk of intimacy as Vincent chronicles both the elation and sting of love’s twin, loss.
For example, when Vincent is with his partner in the video, he sits on the floor between her legs as she caresses his shoulders from the couch above him. When Miles is with his partner, he sits in a chair singing the chorus as she stands behind, lovingly rubbing his head. Although the chorus is quite bitter, these scenes imagine better days. They evoke those glittery, private moments with a partner where it seems like it will all be okay as long as you’re together.
While introspection in hip-hop is not a new concept– think the Geto Boys’ “Mind Playing Tricks on Me” in 1991– few artists are willing to display the level of vulnerability of Miles and Vincent’s solo scenes in their bedrooms. Vincent sits on his bed, rapping about love lost while staring off into the distance. Miles croons the chorus to his reflection in the mirror. Vincent sits alone on the floor hunched over in introspective solitude.
How many hip-hop videos– hell, how many visual depictions period— are there of young men contemplating lost love in their room? Vincent’s visuals explore intimacy in the form of masculine loneliness, an experience rarely represented in its tender reality.
Watch the music video for “Look What You Did” by Reuben Vincent and Sonny Miles.
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