HipHopDX Premiere – Boston Hip Hop stalwart Slaine is back with a new video for “Do Wha You Love” featuring Cyrus DeShield, which serves as the album closer on his latest LP One Day. Directed by SandoFilms, the visual tackles Slaine’s journey to sobriety, beginning with several people revealing how long they’ve been sober.
Slaine — who’s been on his own recovery journey for years — penned the song on his one-year sobriety date in an effort to inspire hope and connection.
“That was something I thought was impossible for me and it is actually impossible for me alone,” he tells HipHopDX. “It’s not a me thing, it’s a we thing, which is why I wanted to invite other people in recovery to be in this video with me whether they got twenty years or one day. The idea behind this album is all we ever got is this one day.”
The veteran artist/actor also admits he was committed to doing anything it took to get clean — even if that meant walking away from music.
“I had relapsed so many times in the studio and around my career in music that I thought in the beginning that I may have to give it up to get sober,” he says. “I was willing to do that. I thought I couldn’t be creative without drugs and alcohol.
“But as time went by and I got better I realized that creativity was always in me and that it was something that was an important piece me. I just had to get back to the purity doing it for the right reason because it’s something I love to do.”
One Day arrived last November and featured Vinnie Paz, ILL BILL, Apathy, Locksmith, Rite Hook and Statik Selektah, among others.
Check out the “Do What You Love” video up top and revisit the album below.