Video: Open @Mike_Eagle – No Selling (Uncle Butch Pretending It Don’t Hurt)

Open Mike Eagle’s trenchant new album ‘Brick Body Kids Still Daydream’ is out now on Mello Music Group (via iTunes | Spotify | Vinyl | CD | Bandcamp | Amazon | Google Play) and has been met with across-the-board raves. The new record, which breathes new life into Chicago’s fallen Robert Taylor Homes housing project, has been met with acclaim from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, SPIN, Consequence of Sound, NPR Music, the LA Times, and more. Mike has appeared on Bullseye with Jesse Thorn, The Intercept, and Beats 1, and been profiled by LA Weekly and Splitsider. The AV Club just released a mini-documentary on Mike revisiting the Robert Taylor Homes – watch it here.

Mike drops the video for “No Selling (Uncle Butch Pretending It Don’t Hurt),” a wrestling-themed video that stars Kimmy Gatewood from Netflix’s G.L.O.W, as well as professional wrestlers Trauma and Human Tornado. “I gotta keep a façade / I gotta play it cool / Like when you with a girl and she go away to school,” raps Mike, using a wrestling metaphor (“selling”, or playing up, the pain inflicted by an opponent) to interrogate the concept of masculinity.

Watch the video for “No Selling” below…

The video is directed by Brent Bishop, shot by Chloe Weaver, and edited by Gregory F. Tuzin. The song is produced by Kenny Segal.