Stone Mecca Tackles Racism & Hypocrisy in New Video 'Boogeyman'

Today, Dallas-based shredder STONE MECCA unleashed the provocative new video for "Boogeyman," a track from his recently-released LP Alienman. Mecca told Billboard, who premiered the video this morning, that he is happy to have the song and video become part of the growing dialogue about racism in our society. "It's right in our faces, man," he explained. "We have the internet now and people are exposed to a lot more and they can dig up a lot more, and we have this undercurrent of hypocrisy and racism, and that's a sad thing. Anything I can do in my art to get people to see things a little different or open their eyes is something I'll strive for."

In a direct challenge to the media-driven idea that society should fear African-American men, Mecca uses "Boogeyman" to change the negative into a positive, turning the fear into power. The video touches on another idea of the "boogeyman," the rescue of an abducted child, depicting a scenario inspired by an episode of ABC reality series What Would You Do?

Garnering praise and comparisons to Prince, Lenny Kravitz, and Gary Clark, Jr. with his own unique blues-rock blend, Mecca carries on the legacies of the greats as he combines his love of hard-hitting hip-hop beats with funk-driven bass lines, grinding riffs, and soulful melodies, and forges his own formidable sonic fortification which trips along genre lines and refuses to be confined--or contained.

Mecca has also put his stamp on everything from movie soundtracks (Django Unchained, Friday, andBlade among others), to global superstars' albums--Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Wu-Tang, and Kanye West, to name a few. As RZA's (Wu-Tang Clan) musical director and band leader, they've performed rocked out sets at sold-out shows all over the world since 2008, billed as "RZA ft. Stone Mecca"- most recently at SXSW and the Fortress Festival. With a tight, energetic band, Stone's live set packs the walls with a titanic sound, and kicks off a run of west coast tour dates at The Mint in Los Angeles on January 16th.

Watch the "Boogeyman" video here:

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