"Unorthodox" is the debut single by American hip hop recording artist Joey Badass, taken from his second solo mixtape, Summer Knights. The song was produced by DJ Premier. "Unorthodox" was released as the mixtape's first single on January 14, 2013 on iTunes.

Joey Badass made a one-off single deal with Mountain Dew's promotion team Green Label Sound. In an interview with HipHopDX he explained how he was able to work with DJ Premier: ""Shout out to Mountain Dew and Green Label Sound for linking that up. I did a one-off single deal with Mountain Dew and they just hooked that up for me. I was like I'll do this for you, and we just gon' get you in the studio with Premier. That's how it happened. It was like a dream come true."

The music video, directed by Coodie & Chike, was released on March 13, 2013 on Joey Badass' YouTube channel which he shares with his hip hop collective Pro Era. DJ Premier makes numerous appearances in the video. The video features animation visuals as through using rotoscope animation throughout the entire video. The visuals were created by designers CJ Cook, Luke Infinger, Ben Gabelman, and Jordan Taylor. The visuals were inspired by artist Evan Hecox. The description of the video has stated: "the goal was to capture the essence of the artists as the surrounding elements emphasized Joey's gritty lyrics."

MTV's Michael Depland has commented on the video saying: "Rappers like Brooklyn's Joey Badass are in the business of painting what writers call "word pictures." He's not just deft at turning a phrase and killing the delivery, but he's also especially good at constructing graphic and vivid tales via his lyrics—he gets you right in there. Now, in his video for the DJ Premier-produced "Unorthodox," a free single from Green Label Sound, Joey's words are literally brought to life. In the lush and colorful clip, the MTV Artist To Watch and Premier are covered in art and strange hues via rotoscoping, while animation illustrates the rapper's lyrics. Joey's verbose lyrical style makes for great visual storytelling, lucky for us, as his words spring to life around him. The Pro Era member has been on a tear lately with last month's video for "Underground Airplay," featuring Big K.R.I.T. and Smoke DZA and his collabo "Wendy N Becky" with Chance The Rapper. Plus, he'll be performing on the 2013 Woodies stage next week. OK, Joey, we knew you were going to be something to watch this year, but now you're just OVERDOING it. Well, we guess if "Unorthodox" represents one piece of art for you, all of 2013 is shaping up to be your masterpiece."

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Wikipedia