I can’t believe it has been a year already! Thanks to Facebook, it has come to my attention that the official Can’t Hold Me music video was released a year ago. It’s a little exciting for me because it was my first music video ever. I appreciate everyone that was involved to help make it happen. Everyone from the videographer, Bryan McDaniels, down to the amazing dancers. My make-up artist Kre (@beyoutiful_kre) definitely came through with the beat and my stylist Hannah (@freetownrevolution) really did her thing with not only styling me but the dancers as well. Jah knows I could not do that alone! I would have had a meltdown to worry about what I was going to wear and then to have to worry about what the dancers have to wear. That is a stressful task in itself. So I truly appreciate the Can’t Hold Me, team.

If you watched the video already, then there’s no way you would forget the fact that I was thrown in a car and kidnapped. Shoutout to One Drop Sound’s own Jasper and King AP Sound’s own Jinx. They played their parts very well as the kidnappers. If that was confusing for you, let me break it down to you. As an artist, I’m striving not to create mundane visuals for my audience. I like substance. I like storylines. I’m trying to find ways to make it interesting…on a budget obviously! When I did some brainstorming for the video I thought it would be cool and different to have someone kidnap me for wanting to play mas with another band. Now we all know things would never go to the extreme inna real life for carnival…or would it?? 🤔 I just thought it would be humorous to throw in that twist as a representation of someone or something trying to hold you back. The title of the songs is pretty self-explanatory that in any situation you just can’t hold me back. Hence the reason in the scene with the two big bad guys trying to hold me captive I’m still showing that I will fight and try to get my way and I will not stop until I do.

I think we should all live with that mindset. As we strive to achieve our goals, there will always be people that try to be an obstacle in our path to success. People just don’t want to see us be great. It’s up to us to not allow them to stop us from reaching the top. You just have to show them that “you can’t hold me, cannot hold meh, cannot hold meh back!”.  Yes, it is a soca song and people tend to think soca is just all about carnival, but the message in the song is universal and stretches far beyond carnival.

Always remember to never let anyone or anything hold you back! Tell them Imani Ray said so!

Thank you to everyone who has already checked out the video! I truly appreciate you guys support.

If you haven’t seen the video check it out below! Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel: Imani Ray. Share & comment your thoughts.

 

 

Much Love Imani

@therealimaniray