Dublin rapper Ahmed, With Love. channels his inner Napoleon Dynamite in his nostalgic new offering. Watch the video exclusively below and Vote for Ahmed.

In our six or so years of being a publication, we’ve waited patiently for the day a Napoleon Dynamite-inspired rap video would land in our inbox. We’ve lit candles, watched the film religiously on Sundays and even visited Tina in the petting zoo in the hopes that our continued manifestation would work. After over half a decade our prayers have been answered by Ahmed, with love.

The Dublin rapper’s conversational style of hip hop accentuates his sense of humour, which shares DNA with the likes of the Soft Boy Records crew and Zack Fox. It’s a perfect marriage and is brought into full focus in the video for ‘As Luck Would Have It’.

Directed by Pippa Molony, it’s a mish-mash of scenes that meander between the familiar feeling of thinking you have found the ‘one’ at club before getting ghosted two weeks later. The vintage flick is littered with unique props and between eating bowls of ‘Not So Cheery Os’ and baking trouble he’s carving out a unique lane for himself in the local scene with an impressive early offering.

We caught up with the rapper ahead of the premiere and he chatted about the synthesis of his new video, which you can watch below.

There’s references to Napoleon Dynamite, what was the thinking there?
I can’t even take credit for that one. I think Pippa (the director) and I were chatting during one of the earlier meetings and the idea came up as a joke. I’m down for whatever though so I was more than excited to do it. It very much goes with that awkward energy of trying to find a way to chat to someone you’ve got your eye on. 

What other inspirations were informing the video and song?
We took a lot of influence from Nadia Lee Cohen with regards to the more extravagant shots and 60s and 70s inspired choices. A lot of scenes just being overtly stylised in that vintage aesthetic is just hella charming which is why we decided to shoot the whole thing in 16mm film.

We also were influenced by the pacing of ‘Date Night‘ by Kojaque. Sam McGrath and Kevin Smith did a great job on that video in just the way scened flowed into each other, they weren’t really thinking about “oh, is this scene too whacky or nonsensical?” and kinda just had a collection of really nice scenes.

We ended up going in that direction as well. The song itself was just me thinking about that initial rush you get when you’re crushing on someone. I’m a big loverboy I think so I’ve caught myself like idolising someone for a day or two after a night out only to snap myself back to the reality of “bro, that was just a one-night thing.” I wanted to tell a story from start to finish of that and the song’s not even that short, which perfectly explains how quickly we can go from being head-over-heels to just going on with our lives.

There’s a lot of custom props. The ‘not-so-cheery-o’s’, the cake, what was the process of gathering all of those?
That was all Pippa and her team surprising me with that stuff. Literally any idea they’d come up with or I’d come up with, her and the gang would sort out, and they didn’t cut any corners. I’m normally really hands-on with productions like this because I’m a big perfectionist when it comes to my work a lot of the time, but I have such an admiration for Pippa and everyone on the team that I knew that whatever they’d come up with would be top tier. I may have suggested the custom box but the rest were just everyone’s creative.

What is next on the horizon?
I’m just tryna keep making the things I like making. Got something coming in early August with a few familiar faces so get ready for that. Still waiting for Korpse collab (smh you know where to find me, E).

Watch the video for ‘As Luck Would Have It’ below:

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District has teamed up with Tullamore D.E.W to celebrate Ireland’s evolving identity with the short film ‘More Than Ever’. Featuring words written by Felispeaks and performed by up-and-coming spoken word artist Adam Mohamed, it sees the poet explore the Island and its increasingly rich and diverse culture. The video can be watched in full here. Sip Tullamore D.E.W. responsibly.