Don Q Drops “True King” Video In Anticipation Of Upcoming Mixtape

With the announcement of upcoming mixtape Double Or Nothing, Don shares the video for “True King,” the project’s opening track. The song opens with dramatic sweeps of strings, and without drums, as Don provides the percussion with his triplet cadences and expert sense of rhythm. In his lyrics, Don Q reveals a ruler’s mindset, lapping up his life of luxury even as he processes residual trauma from his past and constantly keeps his head on a swivel in search of the next threat to his reign: “I take my emotions and bottle them in/I never focus on following trends/When I was broke I thought soon as I made me some dollars I swear that my problems would end.” 

Directed by Starr Mazi, the video finds Don holding court in the outskirts of the Bronx, surrounded by tricked-out ATVs, dirt-bikes popping wheelies, and a pack of bulldogs, a breed whose dogged determination provides an ideal analogy for Don Q’s refusal to back down from any challenge.

Influenced by mob movies and the cinematic rap epics of NYC’s past, the new project finds the Highbridge The Label artist locks into each instrumental, organizing his Bronx tales and assonant internal rhymes into lockstep cadences. Musically, Double Or Nothing mixes a grimy old school NY sound–with ominous pianos, scuzzy snares, and whirring woodwinds–with the occasional dip into the sliding 808s and triplet flows that define the city’s ascendant drill scene. His first new full-length since the release of 2018’s Don Season 2, Double Or Nothing arrives on October 22nd via Highbridge The Label/EMPIRE.