Arcade Content’s Kyle Lewis directed Exodus, a nine-minute short film showcasing five tracks from South African rapper Riky Rick’s gold-selling debut album, Family Values.
A visual feast in three chapters, Exodus is full of the striking, distinctly African symbolism that Kyle has become known for. Shot in Khayelitsha, the short film is an ambitious move away from both the traditional music video format and stereotypical hip-hop imagery.
Leading global industry trade Shots named Exodus a ‘HotShot’ – their monthly picks of the best work to appear on the site. Hype Magazine praised it as “pure visual art”; OkayAfrica called it “visually stunning”; and We-Are-Awesome described it as “next level”, while Afripop name-checked Kyle as “increasingly the go-to-guy for the scene’s more pioneering visual treatments.”
Fuseg, Kyle’s previous collaboration with Riky Rick, became the award-winning rapper’s first music video to top one million views on YouTube.
Kyle won the 2014 South African Music Award for Best Music Video for The Parlotones Sleepwalker and was shortlisted again last year for Tumi In Defense of my Art.
He is repped by Arcade, a new division of Egg Films that produces content that falls outside the realm of traditional TV commercials, like brand films, music videos, and web series.