Khalid’s latest clip is a big sloppy Silicon Valley kiss

Grammy-nominated singer Khalid has a new album coming up, and the debut single, “New Normal,” is as smooth and breezy as a summer afternoon, which is odd because the video accompanying the piece is pretty much a VC investor’s dream. true.

The video depicts a futuristic utopia full of gardens of skyscrapers, autonomous vehicles, drone deliveries and smart homes. Khalid’s video is full of real products from real companies, not generic versions – a sign that the singer may have had a contribution from Silicon Valley in writing his love letter to our capitalist nightmare of surveillance. a future.

You know things start off interestingly when Khalid, shaking sick bluish purple hair, walks to his apartment in a robotaxi from autonomous vehicle startup Zoox. The company, which is owned by Amazon, just unveiled the toaster-shaped driverless shuttle last December. It’s not even available to the public yet, but in Khalid’s imagined future, the road is full of Zoox shuttles – and only Zoox shuttles. (I was briefed on the video by a Zoox PR representative, but have yet to receive a response on whether the company has paid for product placement.)

As Khalid dances inside LA’s Bradbury Building (made famous by Blade runner, a more realistic version of the future), other people insert packages into drones that hum around the building’s expansive atrium. Why are the drones inside the building? Won’t they crash into the skylight? Is there some sort of portal on the roof for the drones that managed to set up despite the Bradbury Building being designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1977? These and other questions go unanswered as Khalid continues to fuss lazily through the song.

The singer then enters what I can only describe as a sanitized version of Korben Dallas’ apartment in The fifth Element (another more accurate representation of our chaotic and punitive future in relation to this). The room is barely bigger than a closet, but the walls are lined with hydroponic plants, which I guess is supposed to make us feel better in what is essentially a well-lit casket. Khalid uses a spray bottle to water his plants. We still have vaporizers in the future!

But maybe I spoke too soon, as the following shot shows us an automatic sprinkler system activated by Khalid’s PS5. Again, this raises a lot of questions: How far can that be, if he still has a PS5? Maybe he likes retro consoles? And why would the PS5 control its water filtration system? Is it now a smart home hub? I am so confused.

Outside, swarms of knee-high delivery robots compete for space on the sidewalk. Starship Technologies’ marketing team must be laughing at their failure to get their brand name in this video. Khalid sings in some sort of smart home sign on his wall, and his voice is apparently transmitted by the delivery robots. I don’t know how I feel about the sidewalk robots singing while stomping on our toes, but let’s move on.

Then, in what appears to be a particularly shameless product placement moment, the singer remotely pays something on his smart home panel (for what? It’s unclear) using Chime, a $ 14-worth startup. $ 5 billion. Does anyone really use Chime? Khalid, of course. Who needs the Cash app? Only the best fintech for our guy.

As the video ends, we end with the image of Khalid opening his blinds to see a giant billboard outside his window advertising the rockets. It is not clear what the ad is selling. A 90 minute rocket trip to the moon would be really, really quick. Probably too fast for any of the near-realistic tech shown in this video. Is this a point-to-point commercial rocket trip between LA and New York, in the vein of Elon Musk’s abortive idea a few years ago? If that was the case, 90 minutes would be too long. Does Khalid’s label, RCA, sponsor these rocket trips? Color me skeptical.

Khalid’s unwavering love for Silicon Valley culture shouldn’t be all that surprising. After all, the singer made his debut with his single “New Normal” in a live performance at the Virgin Galactic Space Flight launch, which sent Virgin CEO Richard Branson to the far reaches of space. He clearly has a soft spot for large multinational corporations seeking to alter the fabric of our reality.

But while the video can be frantic in its romantic feelings for Big Tech’s quest to dominate our lives, the lyrics are actually a bit more nuanced, if not a bit defeatist. “Although I can’t promise you much / Everything will be fine, everything will be fine,” Khalid hums. I really hope this turns out to be true.