Words by Kaya.lah—
The Virgin Islands has a delicate balance. Just moving through the same island can you take you from one extreme to another. As with elsewhere in the Caribbean, that lush, Eden-like imagery can quickly be shattered with some good ol’ third world reality.
Here we settle deep in the urban environments of St. Thomas, the island known as Rock City, with a spitter named Paebak. We get some gritty (and typically unseen) views of his home turf in the historic downtown area of the Rock known as Savan. The visuals (via DigitAK Films) go on to portray other areas such as Ras Valley, Round de Field (where I’m from), Housin’ and the like. Hard places, which clearly illustrate where Rock City got its name.
A creative Island-Hop track with a super-catchy refrain (Just stop yourself from saying “Awwww, maaaannn” after watching this) from one of the region’s top lyricsts, “VI OGs” sees Paebak rocking alongside unseen locally bred industry heavyweights Planet VI (the artists/producers/writers formerly known as Rock City). This will be on Paebak’s upcoming mixtape Small Island Big Dreams, which we’ll certainly be looking out for. Watch the video below, and check out more from Paebak here.