Saba reflects on legacy, generational wealth and the people who made him who he is today

Saba’s nostalgia-tinted third album, Few Good Things, sees the rapper reflecting on his success and its spoils, through the lens of a past that he’s quickly moving away from. Its accompanying short film sees this reflection take more tangible shape, as Saba travels back to the West Side of Chicago to his great-grandmother’s house, which was lost following her death 12 years ago after being in the family for half a century.

Ranging from intimate moments in his great-grandmother’s home, there are also moving excerpts from conversations that Saba had with family members as he attempts to uncover his family history. Touching on themes of legacy, generational wealth and ownership — as well as the lonely journey of chasing your dreams when coming out of poverty — Few Good Things (A Short Film) sees the artist attempting to piece himself together through who and what made him who he is today.

Below, Saba takes HUNGER behind the scenes of the film, sharing some of his favourite stills from the film and his thoughts on each one…

Saba: “Honestly eating was my favourite part about being on set. Not necessarily the food but the time to talk. Getting to know the other actors and actresses and all the people that worked on set was a really great experience. There wasn’t much downtime for most of the people working on the film so being able to just chop it up with the people I was working with was awesome.”

Saba: “The old photos that we used were all straight from my grandmother. The honesty and story that you get from these old photos say so much. We used a lot of them throughout the film and they say more than I ever could.”

Saba: “One of my favourite memories of growing up in my neighbourhood is one of the times the fire hydrant was open. Felt like the whole block was outside. I remember somebody dunking a bucket of water on my mom and me and all the other kids running away. This image was almost exactly what it looks like in my memory.”

Saba: “This two [director and writer of Few Good Things (A Short Film), C.T Robert and co-writer Kyra Andrews] (and Rory) are some of the hardest working people I’ve ever met in my life. They helped to make the entire process possible. I feel like during filming I didn’t see Cam much but I love how happy he looks in all of the photos that I do have of him.”

Saba: “Back home. This is the one we used to announce the tour. It felt very fitting to incorporate this image to me based on how it is a literal representation of that. Dawit took all of the album and single artwork photography and really did a great job of capturing the nostalgia in every image.”