London-based rapper Ashnikko recruits Grimes, who hasn’t released new music since giving birth to her and Elon Musk’s first son together, for the action-packed anime accompanying visual for “Cry” today (June 17).
And let them say, “this could get gruesome.”
The two-minute CGI clip follows the two artists-turned-anime characters channeling their emotionally charged fury into power against their prey. The video’s director Mike Anderson depicts Ashnikko as a three-headed demon alter ego with missing chunks of her body. She exclaims in the beginning of the song, “I’m about to rip all of my hair out ’cause I’m madder than I’ve ever been” before ripping her enemy directly in half. She juxtaposes the bloodbath with a flood of her own tears, exposing her sensitive side as her superpower.
On the other hand, Grimes illustrates her gentle nature by transforming into a fleet of forest fairies, whispering into the wild, “This is the winter of my discontent/ This is the winter of a never end.” Both artists eventually come together — quite literally — as a Medusa-resembling mutation, with Grimes’ heads tacked onto Ashnikko’s growing appendages so they can take down their common enemy.
Grimes last released her fifth studio album Miss Anthropocene at the end of February, which crowned Billboard‘s Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart (dated March 7), before welcoming her first child with Musk in May. They recently changed his name from X Æ A-12 to X Æ A-Xii to comply with California’s law that states parents can only use the 26 letters of the English alphabet to name their child.
Feel the joint wrath of Ashnikko and Grimes in their “Cry” animated music video below.