Songs tell stories. They become a method for people to relay messages creatively. Whether a love story or a song about defeat, sadness, or happiness, songs have a way of representing thoughts and projecting them to an audience. In this regard, many artists have devised ways to use music to advocate for change. This has been the mission of rapper and singer/songwriter Yearwood, and he knocks it out the park with the video for his fourth single, “Nutten Wit We”, a ballad which ends with real life footage of his surprise proposal to his newlywed wife. Yearwood crafts a video that tells the incredible love story of how he met his wife halfway around the world from where they both lived, raises visibility for LGBTQ expressions of love in media and helps support The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ youth.
Nutten Wit We is a love song about the most unlikeliest of encounters. Roughly 24 hours into Yearwood’s first trip to Singapore, he decided to spend his Friday night at the nightclub atop the ritzy Marina Bay Sands Hotel. While talking to a girl on the club’s balcony, his future wife and her friend walked past, politely asking to get by as Yearwood stood in their path. Totally smitten by his future wife but also thinking it rude to just abandon his current conversation, Yearwood stared behind her wistfully as she disappeared into the crowd.
An hour later, a different girl approaches him to dance on the dancefloor, to which Yearwood agrees. While dancing with this girl, Yearwood’s future wife reappears, cuts in, and starts dancing with him. When the DJ soon played Tupac’s California Love, it sparked the conversation that led them both to realize they lived a mere five minutes away from each other in Southern California. Even more incredibly, Yearwood’s future wife had only been in Singapore for 4 hours at that point, as part of a 17 hour layover on her way from Thailand to the Philippines. Still considering him somewhat sketchy at that point, she gave Yearwood just her Facebook contact info. She did however reply to his message upon her return to Costa Mesa, and the rest as they say is history, ending with them tying the knot just a few days ago.
As fascinating of a love saga as his is, Yearwood wanted the song and video to represent something bigger than his own story. For the shoot, Mission Road cast five diverse couples and had them submit footage of themselves in and around their homes, showcasing intimate moments that give viewers a close look into their lives. The result is simply stunning, capturing everything from matching tattoos to TikTok video creation to adorable moments with pets. The couples cast include a lesbian and a trans couple, which Mission Road views as important in order to increase visibility of LGBTQ expressions of love in media.
Beyond the visibility provided by the music video, Mission Road is proud to become a Bronze Partner for The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ youth. Via sales of a rainbow themed t-shirt sporting the lyrics “where my heart wants to be” from the song, Mission Road has pledged to donate $25,000 to the organization to support their important work.
This year’s Pride month celebrations got off to a muted and delayed start as a function of both the ongoing protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. As many cities attempt to reschedule their Pride events outside of June, Mission Road is launching its #PrideAllYear campaign to continue to raise awareness for LGBTQ issues throughout the year and support its collaboration with The Trevor Project. The company is currently in discussions with a number of influencers and celebrities about supporting #PrideAllYear and will continue using its media platform to present stories from and shine a spotlight on communities that are underrepresented in the global media landscape.
For more information about and music from Yearwood you can follow him on Instagram, subscribe to his YouTube channel and follow him on Spotify. Support the #PrideAllYear campaign by purchasing Mission Road’s merchandise here and to learn more about how you can be part of the campaign contact [email protected].