Ready for two years already, A$AP Rocky‘s new single was released last Friday 30 August to generate quite a bit of discussion. From the track’s title Taylor Swif, which alludes unabashedly to the hottest pop star of the moment Taylor Swift, to the release of the album Don’t Be Dumb being postponed until autumn. But in the midst of all this fuss, we were definitely blown away by the video clip, which we have been watching on loop all weekend. Directed by Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia with production by Iconoclast, the video was shot in Ukraine before the outbreak of war. Amidst desolate scenes, decay and burning buildings, A$AP Rocky’s video seems almost like a decidedly unintended gloomy prediction.

In any case, the video proposes absurd realities, a kind of parallel and surreal world with disturbing creatures and sometimes funny reversals. In the opening a dog is driving a car, then continues with a drunk rabbit in a sink, a cappuccino in the toilet bowl, a lady with cigarettes instead of hair and a pony as a pet lying on the sofa. On the streets, chaos is rampant, pandas in packs, bears talking to people and A$AP Rocky on a bathtub-tractor. In short, Vania Heymann’s VFX special effects show a chaotic world that in some ways mirrors our own, wars, destruction, decay and little faith in the future. Perhaps instead of thinking about Taylor Swift we should reflect on this.