Synopsis
Heems turns a tour through South Asia into a restless, homemade travelogue. He dances and raps in hotel rooms, eats at McDonald's, performs on an open-air stage, and appears on roadsides alongside local children riding bicycles. The footage jumps between personal snapshots, bursts of live energy, and politically charged images of President Barack Obama discussing drone strikes. The deliberately rough collage mirrors the song's playful, surreal tone while contrasting its flirtatious boasts with the uneasy implications of the video's drone imagery.
Factoids & Trivia
- The video was first presented by GQ India on November 1, 2012, before appearing through Pitchfork's video platform on January 21, 2013.
- GQ India described the piece as "video wallpaper" and said a junior editor assembled it in approximately 27 minutes, which helps explain its loose, flickering collage aesthetic.
- Much of the footage was recorded during Heems' solo touring in Asia. Reported locations and settings include hotel rooms, McDonald's restaurants in New Delhi, an open-air stage, and roadside scenes somewhere in South Asia.
- The song is also referred to as "Soup Boys (Pretty Drones)," a subtitle that connects the playful hook to the video's political imagery.
- President Barack Obama appears in the opening and closing material being questioned about lethal drone strikes. The footage gives the otherwise goofy travel diary a sharper political frame.
- "Soup Boys" was produced by Lushlife and appeared on Heems' 2012 mixtape "Wild Water Kingdom," released through Greedhead Music.
- The track incorporates the widely circulated "Kolaveri Di" song, adding an Indian pop reference to its hybrid rap production and reinforcing the video's South Asian setting.