Wolf Haley | A Boy Is a Gun / 2019 [music video]

johnny escapes the gun

by Douglas Messerli

 

Wolf Haley (director), Tyler, The Creator (performer) A Boy Is a Gun / 2019 [music video]

 

In the 2019 gay psycho-drama, rapper Tyler, The Creator basically throws a tantrum as he begins to discover that his young boyfriend with whom he is leaving in his elegant estate, is not happy. NPR writer Sidney Madden describes it, giving it a far more bisexual spin than I might have:

 

“In the most dramatic fashion, his love — a strong-jawed beau or Afro-crowned girl, depending on the shot — appears stoic, disinterested and generally disconnected. This propels Igor to spiral into a clothes-throwing, lawn-sprinting, bubble-bath-soaking mess — you know, as you do during a breakup.”

 

 

    From my vantage point it is simply a cute white, black haired version of Troye Sivan-like white boy that has brought down the angry rapper who declaims:

 

“Take your hoodie off, why you hide your face from me?

Make your fuckin' mind up, I am sick of waitin' patiently

How come you're the best to me? I know you're the worst for me

Boy, you're sweet as sugar, diabetic to the first degree

My spidey sensies got me on the fencies

Whole squad in Ginza, travel bag by Balenci'

Big dawg hittin' big wheelies on the six speed”

 

Followed by the memorable refrain of the chorus:

 

“No, don't shoot me down (Yeah)

No, don't shoot me down (Okay)

No, don't shoot me down”

 

    The short film itself is visually splendiferous, as the blonde-wigged Tyler Gregory Okonma, in a release from his album Igor, dressed to the hilt in many a tailored ensemble, but most notably in a lime green suit, deplores the addictive situation between him and the young boy:

 

You so motherfuckin' dangerous

(You started with a mere hello)

You so motherfuckin' dangerous

You got me by my neck (A boy is a gun)

That's why these other niggas lame to us

'Cause all these other niggas lame as fuck

We show 'em no respect

 

    The boy packs his bag and appears ready to leave, but at the very last moment, the central character, presumably Igor, runs through the house, down from to the veranda from the grand staircase, in a final attempt to possibly stop his beautiful boyfriend’s inevitable escape.

     This music video is almost worthy of the remarkable sexually-wrought dramas, often with gay subtext, of the 1950s master Douglas Sirk.

 

Los Angeles, June 23, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (June 2024).