PREMIERE: TRØN & DVD Announce New LP “Manhunt” with “Me Time” Video

Despite working from the relative tranquility of New York City’s northern suburbs, Norvin and Darian Van Dunk feel pretty plugged into the nearby hub’s urban sound. Under the names TRØN & DVD (Norvin and Darian, repsectively), the Nyack-based team take turns rhyming over hard-hitting beats not too dissimilar from the East Coast scene that wrought El-P’s Def Jux two decades ago. Having opened for the likes of Open Mike Eagle, Milo, and Murs, this association is less than eight degrees separated.

Today they’re announcing their newest album, Manhunt, which sees them re-teaming with labelmates Amy Bezunartea and Jennifer O’Connor on a couple tracks, while enlisting Deathbomb Arc rap experimentalist SB the Moor and pioneer of the other Def J, Redman. Its lead single, “Me Time,” is being shared today with a video treatment, announcing the pair’s arrival in all their verse- (and clothes-) swapping goodness. Patronizing a local bar and a nearby rural space, Norvin and Darian are seen rapping each other’s lines while wearing each other’s outfits—meanwhile, the not-rapping brother sits idly by watching the proceedings on his phone.

“Both the song and the video really represent us trying to step back and not take ourselves too seriously, hence us trying to lip sync each other’s lines and switching outfits,” Norvin says of the headtrip clip. “But then we end up steering back into a video concept storyline—mask-wearing with song quotes written on it at the end of video. We tried to do this with the album in general, but ended up telling a full conceptual story regardless. It’s funny to me to see us try to play around but then completely turn the vibe of the video into, ‘What? What’s this mean?’ Looking at the phone represented that no matter what, unless you’re completely disconnected, you aren’t truly getting any ‘me time.’” 

Manhunt is out September 13 on Kiam Records. You can pre-order it here.