send nudes (Original Mix)

Rare DM

Hoagg wrote “Send Nudes” after a romantic interest followed up a date with the lacklustre line: “Thanks for the night.” It was the first week of quarantine, and the mixed signals were leaving a lot to be desired. Still, it left her inspired to make light of the situation and make the mundane messages sound magical via song.

“I’m not subtle, I’m not trying to be,” Hoagg purrs over a somber synth melody and a pulsing beat. “I can send my nudes to someone else.” As the beat and the tension mounts, her disaffected monotone breaks into a delicate Billie Holiday-esque lilt over galaxies of synths and an acid bass beat.

New York City was experiencing its first wave of COVID-19 when Hoagg jumped on her bike to film the cinematic music video for “Send Nudes.” With a GoPro, she captured 8 hours of footage of herself pedaling through the city and dancing as if banishing a bad spirit from her aura. While doing so she listened to the song 72 times, biking from Bushwick to Times Square until her camera battery died, not stopping once. The eerily empty city provided the perfect visual metaphor for being ghosted.

Hoagg teamed up with co-director Jordan Fuller to shoot professional footage, and was filmed cycling on Canal Street by a bystander who uploaded a clip to TikTok. The video went viral, surpassing 1.6 million views, and Hoagg was unaware until her mom sent her the video from Michigan. Intrigued comments flooded in: “Matrix filming?” “If Lady Gaga and Madonna and Cher had a baby.” “The vibes are ~immaculate~”

A former student at Fashion Institute of Technology, Hoagg styled the series of looks from her eclectic closet—a PVC bodysuit with matching gloves, deconstructed knitwear, EVERYDAYS’ hand-painted snake pants, a custom SKNDLSS headpiece. Like the name implies, Rare DM is attracted to vintage, antiques and rarities—no fast fashion here.

In the song’s closing lyrics, she revisits the ritual of preparation—“dressing up to get down.” Whether she’s still dwelling on the previous date or getting ready for a new one is beside the point: the search continues.

“Send Nudes” follows Rare DM’s 2019 debut album, Vanta Black, named after the darkest pigment ever created. In a feature interview, PAPER praised its “stream-of-consciousness” lyrics about “love without resolution,” and likened its “retro electronic sound” to “a black cloud that never quite lifts.”