A music video speaks a thousand words. Yesterday soul singer Raheem DeVaughn had the computer screens steaming with the debut of his erotic, all-NSFW-everything music video for “Single” off his mixtape Jackin For Beats (pun?). VIBE caught up with the thick-lipped chansonnier for a late night conversation breaking down the inspiration behind his lustful video, the importance of oral sex and if he and his lady friend were really acting for the cameras. —Tracy Garraud (@wonkabar)
VIBE: So about this video…
Raheem DeVaughn: Let’s go in on that!
[Laughs] A lot of, er, lip service going on in that.
That video was pretty much all shot on my mouth.
We see. Those sex scenes were super intense, are you sure that was just acting?
No one will ever know.
Are you saying those scenes might’ve been real?
That’s the part I love. I really don’t have to say that. No one will ever know.
Okay. If you could though, would you shoot a video like that, but with real sex happening?
If it was somebody I was comfortable with and we had a level of trust, why not? But no one will ever know except the individuals that were over there filming.
Gotcha, was the lead girl casted or did you know her personally?
I recently started my own record label and we’re going to be doing a website so I met her prior and she was going to be one of the hostess… and still may be doing that. But she’s an absolute stranger and was very professional. And I like to think of myself as a professional too. And it was just fun to do. The imagery is very cinematic.
You’ve never done a video before close to this erotic, what was your motivation?
I wanted to create an image that was tasteful, but cutting edge, provocative, grown… real. I wanted to have people guessing and jaw-dropping. I knew it was going to be big but I didn’t guess all this. I was curious to see just how many people are checking for me, but it looks like a lot of people are.
Yeah, so much so that you were even a trending topic on Twitter yesterday. I’m sure you’ve been getting crazy tweets and DMs.
Yeah, they’ve been on my heels. I’ve gotten some very interesting tweets.
From anyone we may know?