Video premiere: Butch Bastard, ‘Butchie, Baby’

Daiana Feuer on August 15th, 2016

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“Butchie, Baby” is the second tune we’ve heard from Ian Murray’s project Butch Bastard, a slice of sardonic insight embedded in a catchy, easy-going, toe-tapping melody. Even his most smug feelings bubble up to the surface as coos and handclaps. Murray shot the video in Oakland at a neighborhood street fair. He says, “It occurred right after a duo of young white rappers had been kicked off of the stage for performing a song chock full of vulgar expletives as families and children looked on in disbelief.” As the DJ played “You Dropped A Bomb On Me” by the Gap Band, these two men, who appeared to be strangers, started dancing, breaking the tension that had seized the shocked audience. Murray says, “I was moved by the free expression I was witnessing, and how their two very different styles complemented one another. I didn’t get the impression that either of these men were very well off in life, which made the catharsis in their movement very powerful.”

He was surprised, when watching it back, that barely anyone reacted to the two dancing men. “It was almost as if I was the only one who could see them.” He felt the imagery matched the vibe of “Butchie, Baby,” which “is not only one of the dancier tracks, but also is a song about entitlement, which these men I would presume know nothing about. Just as the upbeat tone of the song contradicts the ugliness of some of the lyrics, everything I pick up from these men does, too. If I had interjected any edits or commentary into this footage, it would have felt like exploitation. So I was careful to present it just as what I genuinely believe it was, two men seeking respite from life through impromptu public performance. Presented just as it is, I find it to be quite beautiful.”

||| Watch: “Butchie Baby”