Director LOOSE Captures BERWYN's Vivid Memories for 'I'd Rather Die Than be Deported' Video

Last year saw Trinidad-born, Romford-raised rapper, singer, songwriter and producer BERWYN released his critically acclaimed debut mixtape 'DEMOTAPE/VEGA', alongside standalone single ‘Vinyl’ and a sold-out UK tour, his year culminated with an inclusion in the prestigious BBC ‘Sound of’ Poll (and subsequent final placing of number three)He recently set out his stall for 2021 with the release of ‘100,000,000’ earlier this month - today he follows up with his stunning new single and accompanying video for ‘I’d Rather Die Than Be Deported’.

‘I’d Rather Die Than Be Deported’ is the latest account of BERWYN’s vividly penned memories documenting the journey he took to get to where he is now. When his brother recently asked him if he would genuinely rather die than be deported he replied that ‘it’s not really about that, it’s about being so below everything that you’re more or less not there. It’s about putting everything so far below ground that you may as well not exist.’ The track explores the theme of ‘solitude’ that runs throughout his most recent set of recordings with BERWYN explaining, ‘without actually saying the words lonely or alone, I’m exploring the details of the situations i found myself in’ 

Director LOOSE discusses more about the project: 

Where was it shot?

It was shot over the Dartford Crossing / Dartford Bridge

How many days?

1 day shoot (with lots of takes over the Bridge throughout the day)

Interesting info on how it was filmed:

It's a one shot performance video with Berwyn performing from a convertible car over the bridge, technically a stunt shot as he was leaning out of the car so much. 

We had a convoy of cars going over the bridge, Berwyns performance car, the camera car alongside it with the camera in the space where the passenger seat would have been, a splitter for the label following and another car to keep the lanes clear. 

Director Lucy Hickling said: "I am obsessed with obnoxious rap videos. In this freestyle, i wanted to create the something that subverts the intimacy and vulnerability of Berwyn’s words with the fearlessness and ego that you would more likely expect from a rapper. 

I drove over the Dartford Crossing for the first time at 3am in the middle of lockdown when it was completely empty and it blew my mind. It’s fucking epic and I couldn’t believe I’d never seen a video on here before (after delving deeper into the practicalities of this with production and the police... I can see why!). Regardless, I was set on making something sick.

When I got sent I’d Rather Die everything clicked into place. We wanted to create a one shot freestyle with a twist... like the 017 freestyle which I made with Berwyn last year but much bigger. Without being too obvious - the connotations of crossing two masses of land, whilst so close to death by hanging out of the car, worked perfectly for the song. Even more coincidently, Berwyn actually grew up in Rainham which is the closest town to the bridge. It felt so close to home and was indefinitely meant to be. 

We wanted to carry on the story told in the 100,000,000 video I directed, so we used the same car and same styling, as if both videos unfold across the same night. It feels neat and I think it’s important that the viewer remembers that Berwyn’s homeless reality wasn’t a one night only thing, but a big part of his life. 

We spent ALOT of time figuring out the perfect car, route and camera to film Berwyn from . Tom English (who is my hero) and I spent long nights 3D animating our dream interactions between the cars so the precision drivers could watch it back and have the best possible chance of getting it right in the day. Also shoutout to Shea and Scarlett the producers who put in the work to make sure we’d get away with the shoot without having police take us down. 

To be honest - it was a pretty sketchy shoot. We couldn’t shut down the bridge so we had to act very Guerilla on the day and I had no idea how it would pan out as there were so many variables... traffic, weather, light, car frames... After about 15 laps of the bridge everything aligned and we got the shot!"