Armed with his trademark melodicism, his squad, and a bottle of Henny, Ripp Flamez takes to the late-night Cleveland streets in his video for “Forever,” the opening track on his new album DayOne Forever. Considered the deepest and most personal song on his project, Ripp opens up about his father passing while in jail and his brother getting free.
“I miss my homies, I miss my pops,” explains Ripp. “While I’m not on a mainstream level yet, in my life, my world, my city, I’m considered successful. I’ve waited all my life for this and the people I want to share it with aren’t here to share it. Normally, the intro track is overlooked but this song is especially important to me so I wanted to make a dope visual for it.”
The significance of the video for Ripp speaks volumes about his prominence in his city. Says Ripp, “In Cleveland, you can’t just hang outside chilling with your clique like we’re doing in my video. I wanted to show that we run that shit and show my squad and how we’re an intimate group. We stay off the phone and deal with real life when we’re around each other. These are my closest friends and I’m proud to show the world how we represent Cleveland.”
Ripp Flamez is Cleveland’s formidable entry into the Bryson Tiller/PartyNextDoor school of Rap&B, earning over 270,000 Soundcloud plays on single “Wavez.” Leading up to the release of DayOne Forever, the Wave God dropped “Your Way,” a romantic, for-the-ladies ballad with twinkling piano, plaintive electric guitar, and finger snaps via G Styles.
