At the end of 2024 Piece By Piece on the musical genius of Pharrell Williams captured many hearts with a wholesome story, despite the flattening nature of retelling through digitised plastic. In the aftermath of unruly A Minecraft Movie screenings that saw attendees scream and throw food, the musician Orrin’s Bad Habits leans in to the angst-ridden teenage(-esque) response to gaming. Labubu dolls are comforting on our bags, video games are comforting on the mind.
Brooklyn’s rising musician Orrin is making an exciting contribution, named an art rapper and digital shapeshifter, he’s well and truly back with this video. After being broadcast across America on Dr. Phil, where Orrin insisted he’s a cyborg living in collective consciousness and used we to refer to himself, he’s caught some attention. Orrin also warned of climate breakdown, the end of the world, in the clip. Today’s Bad Habits video, seen in this light, documents human excess — in a cinematic and detached setting. Escaping war-torn fictional NYC first in an alcoholic stupor that sees his character wander dreaming through fields of weed, there is a dystopian edge to the lego character’s disengagement backed by blown out synths and the modern glitched out vocal register.
Bad Habits is animated by Kerk Lord who has re-rendered into lego the greats’ videos then turned them into key rings. His latest trinkets are OsamaSon and Nettspend. We’re gunning for an Orrin one complete with Bad Habits mask! The hip house track they collaborated on aligns with these contemporaries of US rap, releasing music that is highly online and simmers down rap, techno and high-BPM dance music to create something gloopy and ecstatic.
“She wanna start a riot / She tell me boy be quiet” is a strong lyric from Bad Habits. This sense of female power is vital in rap, even if she’s not seen in the video — unless maybe she’s the glowing saviour at the end. As the first video single from Orrin’s album Lost in Translation due 20th August, it’s an exciting start. We can expect 90s house nostalgia with Y2K maximalism, Uzi-style melodies on top of breakneck beats on the record. But underneath it all, Orrin is documenting a sense of broken systems.