Watch This Denver Hip-Hop Group's Halloween-Appropriate New Music Video

Denver hip-hop group Stay Tuned is treating audiences to a Halloween treat on Thursday, October 31, with the release of a new music video for its recent single, “Parts Unknown.”

Directed by local creator Airick Media and filmed at Bar Red, the five-minute clip includes a little bit of body horror. The song’s eat-the-rich theme is represented in a feast that the Stay Tuned members — DJ AWHAT!, Ichiban, Mane Rok and InkLine — indulge in throughout the video.

“The ambience is perfect," says InkLine. "It’s in a basement, so there’s some dark-cellar vibes around the table."

"It has underground tunnels that lead through downtown, so it has a rich history to it, which added to the vibe, for sure,” Ichiban adds of Bar Red's Prohibition-era passageway. The space also served as a brothel during its early days.

Media wrote the treatment, and the entire shoot took less than a week to complete, including a couple of days to get some individual shots after wrapping up the Bar Red scene. It seems fitting that the video is dropping on the haunted holiday, but the song had been in the works long before this year.

“Not that it was on purpose to drop it on Halloween, but we incorporated a lot of Halloween props, so that was perfect,” InkLine shares. “And we wanted to have our homies there sitting around feasting with us.”

The result isn’t as gory as it might sound, but “there is that sensibility of actually eating people in the video, but not in the song,” according to Ichiban.

“The song is a metaphor. The video is a visual representation,” InkLine explains. “While it might sound a little on the nose sitting around eating rich people, for the visual representation of the concept, it fit perfectly. I’m glad we were able to pull it off without it seeming corny or anything like that.”
The song is a teaser for the group's upcoming EP, Tuned In, set to be released on December 6. There are plans for a release party shortly after, as well, though nothing has been officially booked yet.

But before that, the group is premiering the “Parts Unknown” video live on Friday, November 1, during its opening set for Nappy Roots at Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox.

As an audiovisual outfit, Stay Tuned pulls random clips from the deep archives of the internet, including quirky infomercials or other random television clips. For example, the latest music video opens with an old Hungry-Man frozen dinner commercial.

“Anytime we perform, we have visuals,” says AWHAT!, who is responsible for that aspect of the production, including personalized clips for each of the DJ scratches throughout the set. “We put together custom videos for each song. It just lends another dimension to the show. We try to take it to another level.”

The concept is to make audiences feel like they're “actually watching a TV show, like you’re skimming through channels,” InkLine explains.

“Some of them can be cheesy and humorous. Some of them can be eerie and a little more serious,” AWHAT! adds.

“It can be something obscure that you wouldn’t see on the norm. Just whatever we’re vibing with,” Ichiban notes.

Stay Tuned can typically be found at RocketSpace studios practicing before a show, so “we can be as loud as we want,” Ichiban adds.
The group is looking forward to bringing multimedia elements to all of the six tracks on Tuned In this year, too. Working with Chicago producer Maker, a previous collaborator, Stay Tuned first picked a batch of beats from his deep well.

“With this specific project, we’ve been talking about putting something out prior to the end of the year. We just happened to have a bunch of music from Maker,” AWHAT! explains. “We just went at it really just trying to get this knocked out as quickly as possible.”

Stay Tuned has been around in various configurations since 2010, but the current lineup wanted to cook up something fresh to follow up 2020's Remote Control.

“It's been a short minute since we actually have released anything,” Mane Rok admits. “COVID hella interrupted the plans, as it did with life in general, and finally getting to this point was a long time coming.”

It didn’t help that he, InkLine and Ichiban had to re-record their parts after the files were accidentally wiped from Stay Tuned’s hard drive. But in a way, it worked out even better, according to Ichiban.

“That was a huge blow in itself, but to be able to bounce back and be able to re-record all that stuff was awesome,” he says. “The first time you record your verses is a little bit raw and you’re kind of getting used to them. You might be reading off your phone. But going back in, it was like, ‘Oh, I know how I want to attack or approach it the next time around.’ The sessions just went quick, quick, like bang, bang.”

Other than Stay Tuned, the four artists keep busy with other musical projects as MCs, DJs or producers.

“We’re always working on music,” AWHAT! concludes.

So stay tuned.

Stay Tuned, with Nappy Roots, 8:30 p.m. Friday, November 1, Ophelia's Electric Soapbox, 1215 20th Street. Tickets are $27.