Earlier this year, frequent collaborators Skrillex and Fred Again.. welcomed UK artist Flowdan on “Rumble,” released in January with the video arriving in May. Skrillex and Flowdan are certainly ready to rumble in their latest single, “Pepper,” and this time, Lil Baby joined the party.
The Courtney Phillips-directed, London Alley-produced “Pepper” video opens with Francis Ngannou sparring with a rock before a fierce leopard arrives and flashes its fangs. Elsewhere Flowdan overlooks a city at night, rapping, “Take a walk with the full moon / We’re all button and zipped up / It’s all kickin’ off soon / Let’s stay real quick, bruv / I don’t know about your goons / ‘Round here, everything lift up / Whether it’s draw, win, or lose / None of my friend dem give up.”
Next, we find Lil Baby in a control room of sorts. That footage is spliced and juxtaposed with a motorcycle street race and a young man in a diner noticing news on the television, reading, “NGANNOU TRAINING IN SAUDI ARABIA.” Baby raps, “Told you you can’t f*ck with us, you shoulda knew it, yeah / We gon’ do the most, yes / Foot all on them throats, yes.”
As news of Ngannou’s fight with Tyson Fury spreads, the song briefly pauses so we can hear Cristiano Ronaldo’s prediction at a press conference: “Next question!” And then, Skrillex’s innovative and textured production takes over, with Flowdan’s grime flow soundtracking Ngannou sprinting through a desert and spars at the ocean floor. “Battle of the baddest, only one of us leavin,’” Flowdan says to punctuate it all, as the leopard growls and closes in on the camera.
Per press release, “The song links with the upcoming heavyweight exhibition boxing match between Cameroonian-French MMA fighter Francis Ngannou vs. WBC Heavyweight Champion Tyson Fury on October 28.”
Watch the “Pepper” video above.