In recent years, Dev Hynes has been best-known as a collaborator, helping people like Solange and Sky Ferreira find a certain haze-pop sweet spot. But Hynes has also been running his solo project Blood Orange for a while now, and he’s got an album called Cupid Deluxe coming soon. The LP’s first single is an absolutely lovely airy midtempo groove called “Chamakay,” and it features Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek on backing vocals. Polachek’s not in the video. Instead, Hynes and director Adam Bainbridge, who records as Kindness, visited Georgetown, capital of the South American nation of Guyana and hometown of Hynes’s mother. In the video, Hynes meets some of his family members for the first time and shows off some gawky-but-slick dance moves. The combination of heartwarming ancestral connection, gorgeous scenery, and goofy charisma — not to mention a really good song — makes this a truly great video. Watch it and read some words from Hynes below.
Blood Orange – Chamakay
Hynes writes:
I decided to visit Georgetown, Guyana for the first time, the town where my mother is from. She, herself has not been back for 30 years, 3 years before I was born. I tracked down family members, including my 92 year old grandfather, who I had never met before. In this video you will see our first ever meeting.
