Tommy Cash subverts the tropes of rap videos with a fleshy celebration of the human body (NSFW)

Estonian rapper Tommy Cash has directed this unbelievable video for his track Winaloto. As Tommy raps in the video, a swathe of nearly nude bodies – inspired by a trip to the Louvre in Paris – surround the equally underdressed musician as slickly choreographed dancers contort around him becoming human pyramids, landscapes, musical instruments and even a throne.

In rap videos over the years we’ve been exposed to bare (mainly female) bodies, where it’s made OK to objectify and lust over these performers. In Winaloto while our focus is still on the naked body, this peachy aesthetic is more a study of the forms and shapes we can create, all with a wicked sense of humour. Produced by Anna-Lisa Himma, the video juxtaposes elegant, gymnastic poses and sequences with more risqué and jaw-dropping moments. The execution and direction is impeccable and achieved via thoughtful compositions and clever transitions.

At around two minutes in, the video is punctuated with the most graphic part of the film where Tommy’s face manifests itself onto a woman’s crotch. It would be too easy to dismiss the whole video just for that scene, as out to shock the audience just for the sake of it, but its play on clichés is comical and wonderfully art directed. We should see the video for what it is – fresh, entertaining, surreal and a unique concept for a music video.