Earlier this month Elijah Blake put out what is not only among the best R&B/Soul album’s of 2024 with his most recent critically-acclaimed self-titled album, elijah. But one of the best album’s released across all of music this year and maybe even arguably his best album to date.
Today Elijah returns to said album with the debut through Vevo just a few short hours ago of a new Charles Googles-directed video. For one of the album’s most standout tracks and the album’s opening track, Westside Story. That is a very 80’s-inspired banger that immediately grabs your attention with its funky basslines & complete synths. That sounds like it’s cousins with the late great Michael Jackson’s classic, Smooth Criminal. Which is why it should be no surprise that the very cinematic Western-style like clip that opens with Elijah riding up drunk to a ranch in a blue lowrider Chevy. As two men sitting inside the barn discuss with each other how, “He’s a dead motherfvxk#8.” His boss responding with his fist positioned to fight telling him, “Handle it.” Elijah with his hands as a fake gun shooting someone dead with blood splattered on the screen. Has elements of MJ’s classic music videos for, Smooth Criminal and Thriller. Whether it be Elijah snapping his fingers and dancing down the inside of the ranch like how the late great MJ does down the street did in his classic Smooth Criminal video or him doing the classic werewolf dance from, Thriller. After proceeding to fight off a bunch of men and women trying to attack him.
The very cinematic Western-inspired video then seeing Elijah in the actual barn of the ranch. As two more men do rock, paper, scissors to see who will fight him next. One of them winning and an actual ninja coming down alongside the other guy to fight him. As Elijah hilarious and entertainingly shots him down with his fake hand guns and the guy who won rock, paper, scissors is hilariously seen running off like a chicken so he can avoid being taken out as well. Blake then seen taken out the final two people from the beginning that were trying to take him out and him riding off on their horse. The clip then closing with the plot twist that it was all a dream. As the one guy walks up to Elijah’s car asking why he is by his ranch all laid out on the side from being drunk.