The advent of relatively cheap, high definition digital cameras and do-it-yourself video editing software has turned making a professional-looking music video from something that once required financial backing from a major label, into something you and some mates can film on an iPhone in an afternoon.
The problem with that comes, as always, with the fact that if anybody can do something, everybody does. With YouTube putting the means of exposure in everybody’s hands, it’s hard to make your video stand out in a sea of videos, some from artists that have prior notoriety or a label backing them.
Roble Regal, a 21-year old Somalian rapper who hails from Kitchener, Ontario, understood this and figured out a surefire way to get people to check out his somewhat low-rent music video for ‘Decebruary’. The video, Roble alleges, is actually a treasure map to $5,000.
Regal, who claims he made the money day trading in his spare time, has already amassed almost 17,000 views for his clip, which is impressive considering this is the first thing he has ever done as an artist. Thus, most of the views presumably came from eager treasure hunters and not hardcore Roble Regal fans.
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As Noisey writes, instead of spending $5,000 on a music video, Regal made a cryptic montage of slowed-and-thrower nighttime driving clips and footage of him rolling around in a room covered in childlike scribblings. Apparently, hidden in the mysterious vid, as well as the “lyrics, themes, and meaning” of ‘Decebruary’ is $5,000.
As proof of his claim, Regal has offered a screenshot of a PayPal account containing just over $5,100 and provided a financial statement to Noisey. He’s also offered viewers a very hard to figure out clue, but Regal claims that whoever breaks the code will uncover the login and password to the coveted PayPal account.
“The reason I’m doing this interview is because [the ‘Decebruary’ video] is literally the most important thing that I will ever do in a long time,” Regal told Noisey. “Even in the video there are allusions to things I’m working on. I’m working on other things outside of music that are huge in their own right.”
As for accusations that this whole thing is just a gimmick to get his name as a rapper out there (which it is), Regal responds, “I think artistically speaking I believe I can follow up. If I’m ever put in a position where I have to prove myself as an MC as an artist I can.”
Readers can check out the clip for themselves below. At the time of publishing, the clip is still unclaimed, so we’d probably suggest you pay extra close attention to the Arabic writing on the wall in the room Regal is rolling around in, and the drawings of trees, leaves, clouds, wind, and a dollar bill – they could all mean something.
