=Additional Credits

Story by CHROMEO & DUGAN O'NEAL

Produced by BENJAMIN GILOVITZ

Exec Produced by SUE YEON AHN & JACKI CALLEIRO

Prod Co: THE DIRECTORS BUREAU

Production Designer MORGAN GILLIO

Editor PAUL ROGERS @ PARRALLAX POST

Colorist RICKY GAUSIS @ MPC

Co-Colorist DIMITRI RAJAPAKSE

Sound Design UNBRIDLED SOUND

Stunt Coordinator: RENE MOUSSEUX

Label: Atlantic Records

Cast

DAVE 1 as his present self

PEE THUG as present self

AZUCENA ROJAS as the ex-girlfriend

EMMANUEL QUIMBAR as Teenage Pee

HOLLISTER STARRETT as Teenage Dave

KEITH SOMERS as Dram's Dad

MAYA WASHINGTON as Dram's Girlfriend

THAILER LUCAS as Dram's Brother

Trivia & Facoids

The official video arrived on April 6, 2018, ahead of Chromeo’s fifth album, Head Over Heels, which was released on June 15, 2018 through Big Beat/Atlantic.

It was directed by Dugan O’Neal, who also co-wrote the concept with Chromeo. O’Neal had previously directed the duo’s “Old 45’s” video, making “Must’ve Been” part of an ongoing creative relationship.

The video’s central joke is that Chromeo’s romantic and irresponsible behavior seems to have been lifelong. What begins as a present-day relationship problem gradually becomes a tour through the duo’s childhood and teenage mischief.

The flashbacks move through several ages: present-day Dave 1 and P-Thugg, teenage versions of the pair, and even their seven-year-old selves. The young Chromeo characters are played by child actors rather than digitally de-aged versions of the musicians.

One of the video’s biggest escalations is the revelation that the duo were apparently police-car joyriders as children. The gag transforms the song’s “I must’ve been high” excuse into a mock origin story for Chromeo’s lifelong bad judgment.

DRAM functions as more than a conventional guest vocalist in the visual world. The production credits include a small supporting cast built around his storyline, including actors playing DRAM’s dad, girlfriend, and brother.

The parkour material was not merely spontaneous background business: the production credited René Mousseux as stunt coordinator, with Bemo handling visual effects. That helps explain the video’s deliberately over-the-top action-comedy finish.

The video was produced by The Directors Bureau, with Benjamin Gilovitz as producer and Sue Yeon Ahn and Jacki Calleiro as executive producers. Its visual team included cinematographer Arnau Valls Colomer, production designer Morgan Gillio, editor Paul Rogers, and colorist Ricky Gausis.

The clip uses a bright, cartoonish, deliberately artificial tone rather than treating the song’s intoxication metaphor literally. Contemporary coverage called it “reliably cartoonish,” while the production description characterized it as a warm-hearted story about Chromeo’s mischievous past.

Jesse Johnson, the original guitarist of the Minneapolis funk group the Time, plays guitar on the song. He is not the video’s director or a principal on-screen character, but his presence helps connect the track’s modern electro-funk sound to its ’80s funk lineage.

There is also a separate FADER edition/live visual for “Must’ve Been,” released in June 2018. That version is not the same narrative video: it presents Chromeo and DRAM performing a stripped-down version in a hazy, smoke-filled setting.

That alternate FADER film has occasionally caused confusion in listings because it is also described as a “video” for the song. The story-driven Dugan O’Neal clip is the main official music video, while the FADER piece is a performance-oriented companion visual.

In classic Chromeo fashion, the video turns a song about being irrationally attracted to someone into a comic mythology of male immaturity: the protagonists do not simply make one bad romantic decision - they seem to have been making increasingly absurd bad decisions since childhood. That interpretation is an editorial reading of the video’s structure, supported by its progression from relationship trouble to teenage smoking to childhood car theft and parkour.

Notes

The video includes product placement for lyft and beats audio headphones.