Videophiles will appreciate the release of the Purple Hearts’ first music video, which was shot in a single take.

Gen Akal doubled as the director, and editor of the video, with Tim Henny acting as DP. Between them they managed to capture almost two and a half minutes of uninterrupted footage over the 200 metre route, which meandered through Woodstock from Beyers Street, into Victoria Road, and finally into Pine.

The entirety of the video was shot on foot, concluding with an elevated shot from a cherry picker.

“We had maybe fifteen takes, and we ended up using the second last one,” said Akal.

Post production was handled by Paul Speirs from New Creation Collective, who colour graded the footage and added visual effects.

Enjoy! It’s a pretty remarkable achievement.

The Purple Hearts are an exciting new Cape Town hip-hop trio, refreshingly hell-bent on not taking themselves too seriously, if first impressions of their vibe are anything to go by.

Be sure to check out the Purple Hearts website here, and their bio, below.

Think about most of the hip-hop music you listen to these days. You ever get that sinking feeling when the latest lyrical derivative of “poppin’ bottles wit’ models” gets rolled off a lazy tongue? And your eyes strain toward the top of your skull upon hearing this week’s report on whether we love or hate Kim. But we definitely love Hayly all the time; even if she doesn’t always understand the way we show it.
You know what I’m talking about. It’s your brain. Those lyrics are making it bored and fat, and you can feel the equivalent of mental diabetes setting it. It’s a cloud, a haze. It’s a spiritual malaise. Word.

It’s not your fault. It really isn’t, at least not individually. At some point we all traded in creativity, originality and critical minds for diamond-encrusted slop. If it was frosted and it foamed with bubbles, we swallowed it. And now look where we are. We’ve gone from Chuck D, Jam Master Jay and Tupac to the G-Unit in one generation.

And somehow there are three men, raised in this minefield of musical mediocrity, who managed to make it out alive, with their minds and souls intact, and a fire in their belly to create honest, sincere, creative, original, and provocative hip-hop music.

Introducing the Purple Hearts, or informally just “PH”, a Cape Town based rap trio that are claiming back the moral high ground for hip-hop music, one song at a time. And they’re making pretty fast work of it too, having pumped out a new song almost every week for the past year while working on their debut album.

The group is comprised of emcee Lukho Paka, AKA G.I. Nosko, emcee JP Enslin, AKA Jay Million, and producer Alex Kasongo, AKA LX.

The music of Purple Hearts is as young, punchy and honest as its creators. And the best thing about it? It doesn’t come packaged in layers of shiny self-absorbed bull.

We’re seeing a new generation of artists that are giving to the world with their music, and giving back to society with the proceeds from it, and PH are at the forefront of that generation.They’re adding. It’s mathematics.

The key difference is that they know where they come from. All three of these young talents share a strong Christian faith. They’re brothers – and they know where they’re going to.

It is most certainly a brighter day for South African music. We have music with imagination, music with heart.