Co-conceptualized by director Isaac Ravishankara and Poliça frontwoman Channy Leaneagh, I Need $ / So Leave is a video about starting over. We open on a stoic Channy as a maid in a less than fancy hotel, slowly moving from room to room, being very detailed in her work as she cleans with dated appliances and listens to music on cheap drugstore-bought headphones (no Beats sponsorship for this video). She approaches a room that appears to be empty, but when she opens the door she finds a woman sleeping in the bed who looks remarkably like herself. Her double (as she is credited in the video) is fully dressed in bed. There is an open laptop, a guitar, and a wallet full on money around her. Channy just stares at the woman before quickly leaving as she starts to wake up. As she moves on to clean the next room, she notices the woman leave, so she heads back to her room once she finishes. Rather than cleaning, Channy latches the door and begins to go through her luggage. She holds some of the clothes up to her and imagines what her life would be if their roles were reversed. Suddenly, she begins to remove her uniform and put on the womans clothes, dancing on the bed as she does so.
As the song I Need $ ends, the sun has set as the woman arrives back to her room. She opens the door to find Channys clothes folded neatly on the bed. So Leave begins and we find Channy walking confidently away from the hotel, still dressed in the womans clothes - the new song acting as the perfect reflection to the new life that Channy character is starting for herself. While I Need $ is played in its entirety, So Leave is not, giving the first Channy character an established ending while leaving her new persona open ended.
"I Need $ / So Leave" was produced by Ian Blair for Doomsday Entertainment and both songs can be found on the album Shulamith.
