Music Video

Portland Emcee Wynne Lays Down Bars Outside the Original Hotcake House in New Video

“In the Morning” is a new bonus track from her 2019 mixtape If I May..

By Conner Reed November 14, 2020

If you asked Portlanders, Family Feud­–style, where they’d most like to shoot a hip-hop video, odds are strong that the Original Hotcake House would soar to the top of the list. May he who is without a humiliating post-1 a.m. Hotcake House story cast the first stone. 

“It’s just such an iconic spot,” says Portland rapper Wynne, whose latest music video takes place outside the notorious 24-hour SE Powell café. “The vibe of outside the building, 4 a.m., strippers start pulling up. It’s kind of the late-night spot.”

Last October Wynne put out her debut mixtape, If I May.., an impressive set with features ranging from Atlanta rapper JID to Trail Blazer Damian Lillard. On Friday, she released a hazy addendum to the project: the vibey three-minute “In the Morning,” polished during quarantine from a hook she wrote last year, which she says will “conclude the If I May.. era.” 

In the accompanying clip, Wynne rolls up in a bright red 1990 Miata—her brother’s—accompanied by her longtime hype man Raf, a break-dancer she met in college at the University of Oregon. In dark shades, an oversize blazer, and crisp white sneakers, she rides a rubbery R&B beat and lays down lovestruck couplets like “He hungry for the honey / That’s my Winnie the Pooh.” The whole thing culminates in a supremely smooth guitar solo from Gerson Zaragoza, friend of track producer Donovan “DK the Punisher” Knight, whose other credits include work for stars like Jill Scott and Little Simz.

Check out the full clip above (codirected by Wynne and local videographer Fenn Paider), and keep an ear to the ground for more new music—there’s a 2021 release in the works, though concrete details are scarce.

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