LargeUp Premiere: Watch Leno Banton’s “Pina Colada” Video ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ฒ

Jamaicaโ€™s Leno Banton released his Mr. Loverman EP in February with the intent to โ€œset the sound of summer for the ladies.โ€ As we move closer to the season in question, heโ€™s back with visuals for one of the EPโ€™s best tracks, โ€œPina Colada,โ€ starring himself, a female friend and their blender.

The clip, directed by Cesar Buelto and Paul โ€œStammaโ€ Watson (who also produced the video for The New Coup) is a visualizer, not a full-on music video, and the action is centralized in Bantonโ€™s kitchen. Pineapples are diced, rum is poured, buttons are pressed and sexual entendres abound before Leno and his companion, an actress dubbed only as Shelby, enjoy their concoction from a freshly-cut coconut. The visuals could double as one of those mixology tutorials you might find on YouTube. If you didnโ€™t know what ingredients go into a pina colada, you will now.

โ€œโ€˜The song โ€˜Pina Coladaโ€™ was a testimony to a love interest, expressing how her love made me feel โ€” which was a fun, tropical, sweet and radiant energy,โ€ Leno says. โ€œThe video captures the essence of that feeling, which depicts us bonding while creating a pina colada drink.โ€

Leno Banton, you may be aware by now, is the son of Burro Banton, the iconic deejay whose rough and tough, barrel-voiced delivery helped set the tone for dancehall as it evolved from the โ€˜80s into the โ€˜90s, inspiring artists like Shabba Ranks and Buju Banton.

Smooth and melodic, Leno takes a softer approach to vocals than his legendary father. But like Burro, (whose early โ€˜90s version of โ€œBoomwadisโ€ marked a key moment in the fusion of dancehall and hip-hop) his voice sounds just as comfortable floating outside Jamaicaโ€™s borders. The Malachi-produced โ€œPina Coladaโ€ straddles dancehall and the more nebulous realm of island pop, employing steel drum sounds to create a pan-tropical feel that should make this one playable wherever beaches and pools can be found this summer.

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