Hillarynx - The 3rd (Official Video)

Hillarynx Unveils The 3rd: A Poetic Rebellion in Sound and Vision.

London-based artist and political thinker Hillarynx has released The 3rd, a bold new music video that reimagines Ousmane Sembène’s 1966 classic Black Girl through the lens of Black British Hood Feminism. The piece, which premiered to a sold-out audience at South London Gallery, blends music, film, and memory to explore survival, defiance, and the power of visibility.

Directed and produced by Lauren Taylor Gee, The 3rd continues Hillarynx’s wider body of work, Sayyings, a series that blurs art and activism to confront state violence and patriarchy. The video’s central image, a Benin mask, anchors the narrative both visually and spiritually, connecting West African traditions of protection to the everyday act of “masking” as a neurodivergent person navigating hostile spaces.

Written during a train ride on London’s Victoria line, the song transforms personal grief and frustration into collective resistance. “Why must we suffer from one another?” Hillarynx asks, mourning the loss of an aunt to domestic violence while critiquing broader systems of harm.

Collaboratively created with Anna Adetiba, Raef Commissar, Hamish Rooser, James Tong Han Lee, and Sravudh Tanhai, The 3rd emerged from London’s improvisational jam spaces, a living testament to community as both method and message.

As Hillarynx puts it, “Music is deeper than sound. It can be joyful, loving, and liberating without compromising the planet or each other.” Drawing inspiration from Betty Carter, Audre Lorde, and their mother, Hillarynx turns rage into rhythm, anger into art, a call to imagine something freer.