Sethen Norris - Top Dollar Bitch [Official Music Video]

I really wanted to touch you through the screen, I wanted you to feel uncomfortable by the way I was glaring into the lens while rapping out my lines. And if I’m being quite honest, I genuinely wanted the viewers to feel awakened by my hunger. I meant every lyric, every adlib, every movement in that music video—when I see it, it definitely makes me emotional because what I see is an entirely different visual than what you see.
Someone might look at it and say “this is porn”, but on the other end, I see a man that beat the odds, a man with discipline, one that had a vision nobody understood—a true visionary. Somebody who sold cupcakes and pastries for 9 hours every day for two entire years, just to save up for a dream he kept imagining every night before he went to sleep. The respect I gained for myself as an artist after shooting this was truly unimaginable.
I sought after creating a piece that I knew was timeless, in other words, something I could revisit when I’m 65 and still be just as shocked and proud of as I am of it right now.
People sometimes ask me what’s the point of this? Why do a project of this sort to begin with? My main goal was to capture a raw moment in time that I knew I would never be able to relive ever again. When you look at the cinematography, the color-grading, the way the shots are aligned together so carefully—you can’t help but notice great efforts being put behind this project.
This was a celebration of me turning 21 years old, coming into my own, accepting myself for everything that I was, am, and will be.
But at the end of the day, it’s all subjective. That’s the beauty of art, it’s not my job to make you comfortable, or put a smile on your face—this isn’t a 9-5. I’m not on your payroll. Me making you angry without even knowing you speaks volumes.