Kali Uchis is no stranger to an excellent music video. Her last offering for the Tyler, the Creator and Bootsy Collins-featuring “After the Storm” was both totally bizarre and heartwarmingly sweet. And, of course, before then she’d given us a long line of self-directed delights, from the dusky dreamlands of “Know What I Want” to the smoky streets of “Ridin Round” to “Loner”, in which every screenshot feels like a lesson in pure style.
Now we can add “Get Up” to that list (which you can see up top). The self-directed clip merges two of the interludes from her (incredible!) album Isolation – “Gotta Get Up” and “Body Language” – and it perfectly captures Uchis’ essence as an artist in its two parts. The first segment sees her entering a chapel of rest, where she goes to view a body (also played by her), while the second is the more dynamic of the two, opening with her swimming and then dancing alone while staring down the camera lens. In other words: she basically attends her own funeral then has a solo party afterwards.
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This video proves – once again – that Uchis has a perfect grasp on who she is as an artist, and the aesthetic she’s crafted for herself. Each part suits the music it accompanies perfectly – the uncovering of the body in the first feels like it pairs with the realisation in the lyrics (“Gotta get up and get me something real”), while Uchis’ physicality in the second embodies the faster-paced fluidity of “Body Language.” Uchis’ vision is one of the most fully realised in music, and any music fan who’s interested in innovation and invention should be at the edge of their proverbial seat to see what she comes up with next.
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