Keep your nose clean and stick to the bag
January 22, 2026 9:29 am
Hardrock’s “not afraid” is featured on his album 1of1, released in August of 2023. The track is pensive and emotional, and has the beat to match. The track is produced by A+I, although I was not able to gather much information on them. Whoever they are did a great job, using glitchy timing effects on a soft piano sample to give the track forward motion.
The music video is an incredible visualization of the track’s themes. The presentation of the video is fairly minimalistic, depicting the artist in a mostly white background, with some cuts of Hardrock in deep water, behind cool text effects, and in various beautiful outdoor scenes.
My favorite piece of symbolism in this video is the koi fish, which are present in many different scenes in the video; they are said to symbolize perseverance due to the fact they instinctively swim upstream. This aligns with Hardrock’s themes of achieving success and overcoming strife in the song, as well as with the journey he depicts in his wider discography, from struggling at the bottom to achieving monumental success at the top.
