Photo credit: Antoine Davis
Vincent Van Great
Last we heard from Vincent Van Great he was indulging his mischievous side on 2018’s A Tape Called Fresh, a joint project with Dana Coppa that found the two trading boys-will-be-boys bars over grimy, smirking hip-hop beats. That’s just one side of the Milwaukee rapper, though. That project took a soulful, more mature turn in its second half, which included a smooth, neo-soul reworking of Van Great’s 2016 track “I’m The Man” that put the spotlight on the rapper’s backing band Ninja Sauce.
That band—bassist Maurice “Buck” Harmon, keyboardist John “Bart” Caldwell” and drummer Warren Crawford”—also takes center stage in the new, rosé-hued video for “I’m The Man Pt. 2 (Ninja Sauce Edition).” Directed by Gonzales Visuals, it finds Van Great in full loverman mode, and teases the rapper’s new direction. “Even though this is a tune from my joint project with Dana Coppa, it really gives a great example of the direction I’m going for my upcoming, self-produced second album, Ladies Please,” he says, describing the new project as “fully contemporary R&B and pop.”
He’s aiming to release that record later this year, but in the meantime you can stream the new video below, and catch him perform Friday, May 3, as part of the Journal Sentinel’s 2019 Wisconsin Bands To Watch concert at Radio Milwaukee, along with Chicken Wire Empire, Telethon and Zed Kenzo.
