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Facing Police, Pusha T Remains Stoic In 'If You Know You Know' Video

Pusha T set the summer off right with his third studio album Daytona in May. Today, he gives the album's lead track, "If You Know You Know," a video treatment full of his signature bravado. The smokey, glitch-filled video directed by Shomi Patwary depicts the DMV rap vet and G.O.O.D Music president having a run-in with the law after speeding through the desert in his cocaine-white exotic car at sunset. Perspective shots switch between the police dash camera and Push's own point of view.

"Solely responsible for showin' rappers how to stand / On the front lines when trappers started throwin' bands / Where were you when Big Meech brought the tigers in? / 'Cause I was busy earnin' stripes like a tiger's skin," Pusha spits.

As the lyrics of the third verse fades under, King Push steps out of the vehicle with his hands behind his head. More officers circle the rapper with guns drawn and faces distorted in apparent anger. As siren lights flash, K-9 dogs snarl and lightning streaks across the sky overhead, Push seems to come to a moment of familial serenity. It's clear he's found himself at this impasse before and knows that, despite the triggers around him (literal and figurative) that could cause him cerebral stress, he remains stoic and fearless.

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Sidney Madden is a reporter and editor for NPR Music. As someone who always gravitated towards the artforms of music, prose and dance to communicate, Madden entered the world of music journalism as a means to authentically marry her passions and platform marginalized voices who do the same.