Today, Previous Industries, the brainchild of long-time collaborators Open Mike Eagle, STILL RIFT, and Video Dave, announces their forthcoming album Service Merchandise, due June 28th via Merge Records. The newly formed collective shares the second taste of their debut album with their new Child Actor-produced single and music video “Pliers,” directed by Video Dave.

“Pliers” paints a feeling of urgency for the release of the forthcoming record, a sentiment pronounced by the trio’s staccato all-gas-no-brakes flow that thoughtfully touches every pocket of every measure, extending throughout the track’s action-packed three minutes. Its hookless, bar-focused structure frames an old-school cipher-like presentation, capturing the trio at their best, with their raps at the forefront.

 

 

The rap video is a shot-for-shot remake of the “Show Me the Way to Go Home” scene from Steven Spielberg’s classic thriller Jaws. The video features Previous Industries in live action captured on greenscreen by Ryan Calavano. We find our heroes STILL RIFT, Open Mike Eagle, and Video Dave on a small boat, under attack from an unseen threat, springing into action, and fighting for their lives. It all takes place in a beautiful, layered cartoon world created by Emmy Award-winning animator Crankbunny. All props handled in the video were meticulously wrapped in felt in Dave’s signature style of textile articulation.

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The innate chemistry between them as rappers could only be achieved because of their long-standing friendships, evident in their multiple previous collaborations. Previous Industries marked their official debut as a group earlier this year with their double single “Showbiz” and “Braids.”

Open Mike Eagle needs no introduction. An emcee, comedian, and podcaster, Open Mike Eagle coined the term “art rap” to describe his whip-smart, literate style of hip-hop, which draws inspiration from Freestyle Fellowship and De La Soul as well as They Might Be Giants and Pavement. While he has ten albums to his name, a few of the many critically acclaimed highlights are Brick Body Kids Still Daydream (2017), Anime, Trauma and Divorce (2020), and Component System with the Auto Reverse (2022). All the while, he has become a respected figure in the comedy world, co-hosting several podcasts as well as the Comedy Central series The New Negroes.

Video Dave first met Mike on the campus grounds of Southern Illinois University, where an innate creative bond was formed alongside other notable figures Hannibal Buress and Serengeti. For the uninitiated, Video Dave is a Chicago-bred rapper, TV producer, beatmaker, and writer who notably worked with Open Mike Eagle on the production of The New Negroes, on which Dave was also a musical guest with both Mike and Method Man. In 2023, he released ArticulatedTexTiles, which includes features from OME and STILL RIFT. That album earned a slew of critical praise, including being named one of July’s best hip-hop albums by Bandcamp. A true multi-hyphenate artist, he has had a creative hand in seemingly disparate corners of modern-day culture—from sewing to reality TV shows to Prince performing at the Super Bowl, somehow Dave has a connection.

Enter STILL RIFT, a high school friend of Mike’s whom he has lovingly described as “a mystery wrapped in an enigma.” While he has not released his own music, he has made numerous appearances turning out memorable features on others’ projects. He was most recently featured on OME’s 2023 album Another Triumph of Ghetto Engineering, as was Video Dave.