Chi-Town's Gemstones On "Circles" Music Video: “Some Of The Dudes In The Video Had Been Shot Already”

[SOHH highlights a hot record every week and offers a behind-the-scenes look at the smash in Singled Out. After Clinton Sparks broke down his “Reaper” visual, Chicago rapper Gemstones decodes his “Circles” music video.]

“Circles” is Chicago right now. Literally. What you saw [in the music video], that’s not just acting. I was just on the phone with somebody telling them the actors you saw shooting the guns, those weren’t actors. Those were real dudes in the hood who I walked up on in the spot one day selling drugs and posting on the block and I walked up to them, they’re from my old neighborhood.

The real actors that were supposed to play those parts didn’t show up that morning. I walked up like, “Who wants to be in the video?” They were like, “Stones, you know we got you.”

I was like, “Okay, you’re going to be the shooter. You’re going to be the killer. You’re going to be the one who got shot.” Right there.

Those roles weren’t rehearsed. I want to put that out. It was all right there. Some of the dudes in the video had been shot already and shot at people. They had been shot and shot at people.

This is real.

“Circles” is a reflection of the uncut, raw Chicago everyday in the summertime. It’s always like that but I know you saw there was like 250 murders over 1 weekend in the summer. 250 to 400 murders in Chicago? “Circles” is just showing it’s a cycle.

You kill my dog, I kill your cat. When will it ever stop? We going in circles, y’all. Wake up. I just chose to paint the picture from another view of the building. I didn’t want to paint the picture from the view Chief Keef is painting the picture from that we’re glorifying it.

That boy you just killed was somebody’s son, somebody’s brother, somebody’s father. You didn’t just kill him. When you kill somebody, you kill a whole generation.

You kill a whole family when you kill 1. I wanted it to be as brutally honest as it could be and graphic.

I wanted them to see the blood. I wanted them to see the guns. I wanted the world to see what’s really going on out here in Chicago.

I wanted to raise the bar. I know there’s no rappers in the game doing that. I think the majority of rappers have all these Cristal and Ace of Spades bottles or a car dancing and I wanted to let them know that’s not my reality.

I’m still in the hood. That’s my reality. That’s why I put the little disclaimer at the end about the bodies. That’s what “Circles” is.

I keep speaking on it in every interview I do, Spike Lee is doing a movie in Chicago called Chiraq and he’s going to use my circles song for the soundtrack.

Remember I told you that.