Photo credit — Olha Melokhina

The independent artist turns a messy friendship breakup into a fog-filled short film, and it’s only chapter one

Most people process a falling-out with a long walk, a sad playlist or a group chat that goes quiet. Chad HaTTaH built a whole story world out of his. This October, the hip-hop and neo-soul artist releases “Gee”, the opening single from his EP The Reconciliation of Chad HaTTaH, and the visuals are where the real story begins.

Ahead of the release, we caught up with HaTTaH for an exclusive look at the ideas and imagery behind the video before it lands online.

Let’s be clear about the stakes. This isn’t one video stuck onto one song. It’s the first of five chapters, with the remaining singles due through the end of the year. In an age of drop-and-forget rollouts, that’s a bold, almost old-fashioned bet. I’m here for it.

So, what are we actually watching? Reflections, fog and shifting perception, all wrapped in Alice in Wonderland imagery. Nothing sits where you left it. Clarity arrives slowly, the way it does in real life, and that mirrors the song itself: a move from judging everything to simply observing it.

Then there’s the fall. In the wider story, HaTTaH’s character is pulled into a book and tumbles through judgment, fear, worry, ego and doubt. On screen, it takes seconds. In his life, it took far longer. That gap between screen time and heartbreak time is the smartest thing about the project. Anyone who has replayed an argument at 3:00 am knows a second can feel like a year.

The backstory gives it weight. HaTTaH is 37. He found community at festivals, starting with Burning Man at 19. Later, a falling-out with the people closest to him cracked something open. He first wrote angry, pointing outward. Somewhere along the way, he turned the lens on himself. That pivot lives inside the name.

Chad is the joyful yet hurting human, while he uses HaTTaH ability to step back, watch and steer, in order for him to lead himself back to the joyful version of himself. Even the visual world is organized around three ideas: the mind, the heart and the spirit.

Here’s my stance. This could have gone preachy fast. Self-help rap with a fog machine is a real genre, and it’s rarely good. What keeps “Gee” interesting on paper is that HaTTaH refuses to tidy things up. He frames the whole thing as an ongoing process, not a glow-up. The EP isn’t about a polished version of himself. It documents what happens when the storyteller becomes the subject.

The Alice in Wonderland choice is sharper than it first looks. Carroll’s heroine follows something curious, drops into chaos and meets characters who are all completely certain they’re right. Judgment is basically the Queen of Hearts’ entire personality. Drop a man who is learning to stop labelling people into that world and you get a neat metaphor for ego.

The timing helps, too. Autumn is leaf-shedding season, and HaTTaH leans into it. The idea isn’t to reject who you were. It’s to let go of habits that no longer serve you while understanding where they came from.

Is it flawless? I can’t say yet, because details are thin. We will have to wait and watch.

Still, my prediction is simple. People will talk about the fall more than the song. A few seconds of tumbling through fog and mirrors could become the image that carries the entire EP. Watch it twice. Once for the look, and once for everything hiding inside it. Then call a friend you haven’t properly spoken to in a while.