Vietnamese artists wAvy, Xolitxo, Da/md, and Tlinh team up for the “special edition” of “Night,” which premiered yesterday, August 18, via independent label and collective, VNDTOWN.
The track was produced by Dustin Ngo and mess., collectively known as ANNAM, who have worked with high-profile Vietnamese artists including Suboi. The ambitious project recruits director Phuong Vu and Antiantiart Production, juxtaposing religious themes with industrial elements.
To celebrate the release of “Night,” we spoke with Thao Vu, label manager of VNDTOWN.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
AD LOADING...
HipHopDX Asia: Can you tell us a little bit more about VNDTOWN and the artists involved in this project?
Thao Vu: VNDTOWN was established in March 2020. Our goal is to support young artists to express their perspectives on life freely and creatively, as well as to bring Vietnam’s music to international markets. wAvy, Xolitxo, Da/md, and Tlinh are all talented Gen Z artists who are significantly popular in the Vietnam music scene recently, especially Tlinh, the female rapper who made a remarkable impression in Rap Việt 2020 from Suboi’s team.
Producer duo Dustin Ngo and mess. are well-known in Vietnam’s hip hop and electronic scenes as ANNAM with their unique Vietnamese traditional style. Director Phuong Vu and Antiantiart Production are known in the Vietnamese film scene now with their several popular music videos. They produced Chi Pu’s performance in 88rising’s DOUBLE HAPPINESS Winter Festival.
AD LOADING...
HipHopDX Asia: Share with us how the project came together.
Thao Vu: The project was improvised, from the music production to video-making. After Dustin Ngo finished the first draft of the beat, wAvy, Xolitxo, and Da/md released the first single in May 2020. After that, Tlinh and mess. had finished the last part of the special edition and we started making the music video with this version with six artists in the track. [Director] Phuong Vu flew from Hanoi to Saigon for another project, and we had a meet-up that night. The idea of the music video was also created that day. The entire process of the video production was fortuitous, hustling with a low budget but fortunately blessed with good luck when we got a lot of support from all of our friends from Hanoi to Saigon who love hip hop.
The video was shot for three days, including locations in Saigon and the burning buffet on the landfill site. The editing process was done by Antiantiart and 10 visual artists and teams in Vietnam. This would be our longest project ever, which has been produced for nearly two years from making the song to the video itself.
HipHopDX Asia: What’s the song about?
AD LOADING...
Thao Vu: The song was written about the night vibe in the cities from Hanoi to Saigon through the eyes of young people. Forget about the busy life, we are floating over the dark of the night, to see through our soul cities still running day by day, though we have to hustle but we will never forget who we are, why we were, and what we are living for.
HipHopDX Asia: What was the thought process behind the visual approach for the song?
Thao Vu: Following the idea about “Night,” Phuong Vu had visualized the idea of fallen angels. It shows an overall perspective of the human world through the eyes of supernatural characters, the angels. By taking a bold approach, the music video conveys messages about life, to change the negative truths that are always present in life that we try to avoid, and bring a new hope of a better life for humanity by awakening about our reality.
Watch the music video below:
AD LOADING...
Thanks to VNDTOWN for the behind-the-scenes photos.
