Grammy-nominated singer Khalid has a new album coming out, and the first single, “New Normal,” is as smooth and breezy as a summer afternoon, which is weird because the video that accompanies the track is pretty much a venture capitalist’s dream come true.
The video depicts a futuristic utopia full of skyscraper gardens, autonomous vehicles, drone deliveries, and smart homes. Khalid’s video is brimming with real products from real companies, not generic versions — a sign that the singer maybe had some input from Silicon Valley in crafting his love letter to our surveillance capitalist nightmare of a future.
You know things are off to an interesting start when Khalid, rocking some sick blueish purple hair, rolls up to his apartment in a robotaxi from autonomous vehicle startup Zoox. The company, which is owned by Amazon, only just unveiled the toaster-shaped driverless shuttle last December. It’s not even available to the public yet, but in Khalid’s imagined future, the road is teeming with Zoox shuttles — and only Zoox shuttles. (I was tipped off to the video by a PR representative from Zoox, but have yet to receive a reply as to whether the company paid for the product placement.)
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