A Conversation with "Blue White and Red" Stars Nina Kennedy and Nejma Nefertiti
Juneteenth 2020 marked the world premiere of a music video for the single "Blue White and Red" starring lyricist/rapper Nejma Nefertiti and pianist Nina Kennedy. An INFEMNITY Production, the video was filmed and edited by April Gibson.
INFEMNITY: Tell us how "Blue White and Red" happened.
Nina Kennedy: The first step was that April's nephew Mike Gutta [owner of Ryan Premier1989 LLC] sent us some beats to choose from. I listened to them and thought about which pieces in my classical repertoire would fit well around the beat. I decided on the opening of the Grieg Concerto since the mood is a bit defiant yet melancholic. I knew I'd have to slow it down for a track that kids could dance to, so I recorded the solo over Mike's beats. Then April put together a rough cut audio recording. She had the idea to aim for a Juneteenth launch, so we asked Nejma to write lyrics that would be appropriate for Juneteenth. We sent her what we had and she listened to it over and over while writing her text.
INFEMNITY: And this was all happening online?
Nina: Yes. We were all emailing each other. We didn't get together until Nejma had us over and performed the r