HipHopDX Premiere: Oklahoma City-based artist Josh Sallee has unveiled a new video for the single “Pressure” featuring Cassie Jo Craig, which delves into mental health issues and stigma surrounding them.
The son of a preacher, Sallee believes he’s was born to rap. For the past four years, he’s been steadily working on his craft while touring with artists like The Cool Kids’ Chuck Inglish and Alex Wiley, and leading the way for the Oklahoma rap scene.
“I don’t dress weird, I’m not here to catch eyes, it’s to catch ears,” Sallee explains to DX. “I represent a much more normal person, who has flaws, and makes mistakes, and deals with themselves more than anyone.”
“Pressure” confronts feelings of struggle, adversity and depression, something he initially struggled with rapping about. “At first I didn’t know how to feel just putting that out there, but once people who also dealt with that stuff heard it and it helped them, I started to see it was needed,” he says. “Overall mental quality is so overlooked. I will never mind being one of the people who help spread the topic.”
AD LOADING...
Sallee also directed the video, which is really nothing new. He directs them all. “I think that
is a lost art nowadays,” he says. “Low budget, low takes, low effort videos are a pretty normal thing. I don’t have a budget. I have been a full time rapper in Oklahoma for four years—that’s bizarre [laughs]. But I’ve been able to still get creative and put out really quality videos.”
Watch the video above.
