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Music

Wiki Comes to Win in His Street-Shot "Stickball" Video

He and some friends put chalk to the tarmac in downtown Manhattan, then play.

When Wiki goes to bat he shows up to win. That much is clear in the rapper's new visuals to accompany track "Stickball", off his recent debut solo album. The video sees Wiki and some friends stake out a downtown Manhattan street for a little game of stickball. Anyone who grew up in that part of the east coast probably remembers seeing kids turn a broom into a bat before knocking a ball around, improvising a strike zone with chalk on the wall behind the batter. If not, well Wiki can now show you how it's done.

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Much has been made of Wiki's deep roots in New York – not least from the title of said album being No Mountains in Manhattan. This video follows in the steps of others, from both his solo work and time as a Ratking member, by turning the city itself into a main character in the story. The streets, here transformed into a site of play, switch between several roles when seen from Wiki's perspective. And so you watch him call out record labels and A&Rs for trying to commodify his aesthetic while he rolls through the parts of the city that shaped the artist he is today. As with basically everything he puts out, it's true to him: honest, winking, able to leap from a grin to a lacerating punchline in an instant.

In short: watch the damn thing. It's at the top of the page.

You can find Noisey on Twitter.