Pitchfork

Ras Kassa directed the new Elephant Man video, which initially appears to be an absurdist performance piece. Beginning with Ele and up-and-comer Demarco (who just signed a $1 million deal with Koch records) sitting in a room full of dry ice drinking Hennessey, the scene then becomes something out of Dexter. The Energy God is selecting from a series of sharp tools before settling on a cleaver to, well, cleave off a man's head. As he chops, the victim transforms into a fish. Next, we see a hearse driving down a road and Elephant Man standing over a grave with a shovel in his hand. "What the hell?" is a serious understatement. Thing is, something this writer just learned and probably what a lot of people who will watch this video will not know, is that "fish" happens to be a slang term for "gay man" in Jamaica. Just when it seemed that Elephant Man had turned the corner, what with signing with Bad Boy and releasing an album full of songs that are more fun than murderous, it looks like there's a reason why he didn't sign that "Reggae Compassionate Act". With this knowledge, one can only wish that the video were simply bizarre and absurd.

Something this appalling is a little unprecedented for Ras Kassa, who's previous work includes Damian Marley's "Welcome to Jamrock" and Sean Paul's "Never Going to Be the Same".