Imagine what it would be like to roam the corridors of your old school at night, unencumbered by the daily activities of a university. Then, you have a sense of what M34N STR33T’s new video for “UNO Hallways” is like.

This track from the Omaha hip-hop trio’s 2014 full-length Mutants of Omaha shines most of its spotlight on Haunted Gauntlet’s (aka Adam Haug’s) production work. And so M34N STR33T chooses in this case to show, not tell, how they might feel about the buzz of an academic setting, its drawbacks and its isolation. 

They stroll up to the main doorway, and upon crossing its threshold, the color changes like a flipped switch on night vision goggles. The vibrancy of the colors matches the brightness of the ‘50s era doo-wop sampling. Scrawlings of class notes and math equations are imposed over the video. Haunted Gauntlet, emcee Conchance and DJ Really Real casually weave in and out of hallways on skateboards, and litter torn pages of notebooks throughout the halls.

As the video culminates, and Haug’s art history professor asks once and for all if “the work you’ve turned in is your own,” it cuts to Haug sitting cross-legged in the hall working the sample-pad. In a way — arguably the most important way for for an artistry-focused unit like M34N STR33T — yes.

To catch up with the OEAA-nominated group’s recent work, you can check out their first video premiere of “Nite Owl,” which previews this new video at its beginning, as well as our review of Mutants of Omaha below: