Apparently rapper Tyler the Creator and former One Direction member Zayn Malik were supposed to collaborate on a remix of “Pillowtalk” nearly eight months ago.
Also apparently, Zayn Malik never followed through on said collaboration, but that didn’t stop Tyler from making it anyway. In February, Tyler the Creator cut down on the pop star’s hit single “Pillowtalk,” adding his own R&B and disco touch. Surprisingly, the rapper doesn’t even rap in his own remix; the most you’ll hear from the usually extremely vocal artist is the occasional repetitive background.
But, what makes the remix is not the music itself—it’s the video Tyler paired along with it. He claimed via Twitter that he had “no art” to go with the song and therefore videotaped himself dancing along to it instead. The absence of the actual singer, Zayn Malik, is comically overshadowed by the content of the video itself, which is shot like a home video one’s parents would make for nostalgic purposes.
Throughout the video, Tyler the Creator acts much like an average person who is singing along to a beloved song when they’re alone. He begins by crouching in front of his camera, presumably to start it, before backing up and pulling out an electric guitar, playing along with the tune in his remix. After the first twenty-five seconds, however, he puts the guitar down, and thus ends the only part of the video that makes veritable sense. The rest consists of him wandering around the semi-crowded expanse of the room, sometimes flashing his Golf merchandise before the camera as he bobs his to the beat, sometimes mouthing the lyrics to the song. He’s even completely absent from the view of the camera for a good amount of time. The entire video is a drastic change from the original song’s music video, which included mind-boggling graphics and pretty shots of supermodel Gigi Hadid paired up to the handsome Zayn Malik himself. Tyler the Creator’s version is much more natural in comparison. Pretty much, it’s everything people find themselves doing when they’re bored and alone—a refreshing sight from the flawlessly airbrushed music videos produced on a regular basis.
