"Humility" is a single by British

virtual band In entertainment, a virtual band (also called a virtual idol, virtual singer, virtual group, virtual artists, cartoon group, cartoon idol, cartoon singer or cartoon band) is a band or music group whose depicted members are not people, but animate ...

Gorillaz Gorillaz are an English virtual band created by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett in London, England in 1998. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (gui ...

featuring American jazz guitarist

George Benson George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American jazz fusion guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the ...

. It was released on 31 May 2018 along with "Lake Zurich" as the first single from their sixth studio album, ''

The Now Now ''The Now Now'' is the sixth studio album by the British virtual band Gorillaz, released on 29 June 2018 through Parlophone and Warner Bros. Records. Gorillaz co-creator and frontman Damon Albarn began writing and recording the album in late 2 ...

''. On 12 July 2018, two remixes of the song by

Superorganism A superorganism, or supraorganism, is a group of synergetically interacting organisms of the same species. A community of synergetically interacting organisms of different species is called a '' holobiont''. Concept The term superorganism is ...

and

DJ Koze Stefan Kozalla (born 1972), better known as DJ Koze (), is a German DJ and music producer. Biography Born in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Kozalla first became known in the Hamburg music scene. In the early 1990s, he started as a rapper and DJ ...

were released. It charted in a total of 8 countries reaching number 85 on the US Billboard Hot 100, with its highest position in any chart being number 7 in

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Hot Rock Songs Hot Rock & Alternative Songs (formerly known as Rock Songs and Hot Rock Songs) is a record chart published by ''Billboard'' magazine. From its debut on June 20, 2009, through October 13, 2012, the chart ranked the airplay of songs across alternati ...

Promotion and release

The song was first announced on 30 May 2018 when

Zane Lowe Alexander Zane Reed Lowe (born 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence through pr ...

confirmed ''The Now Now''s release and stated that

Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (, ; born 23 March 1968) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the frontman, main vocalist, and lyricist of the rock band Blur (band), Blur and the co-creator and primary musical con ...

would be debuting the song on the

Beats 1 Apple Music 1, previously branded as Beats 1, is a 24/7 music radio station owned and operated by Apple Inc. It is accessible through iTunes or the Apple Music app on a computer, smartphone or tablet, smart speaker (such as the Apple HomePod), ...

program the following day. The next day, the song debuted with a music video featuring

Jack Black Thomas Jacob "Jack" Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is known for roles in family and comedy films, in addition to his voice work in animated films. His awards include a Children's and Family Emmy ...

and was digitally released along with another single, "Lake Zurich". On 13 May 2022, the music video was re-uploaded to the Gorillaz

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel with commentary from virtual band member

Murdoc Niccals Gorillaz are an English virtual band created by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett in London, England in 1998. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (gu ...

Music video

The music video for the song was filmed in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California and features

. It begins with footage of

2-D 2D or 2-D may refer to: Related to two dimensions * Two-dimensional space * Two-dimensional Euclidean space * 2D geometric model * 2D computer graphics * 2D animation, or traditional animation * Two-dimensional correlation analysis Other uses ...

roller-skating around Venice Beach interspersed with shots of Black playing a guitar. This sequence appears multiple times throughout the video, mainly in between the appearances of the different Gorillaz members. After the opening sequence,

Noodle Noodles are a type of food made from unleavened dough which is either rolled flat and cut, stretched, or extruded, into long strips or strings. Noodles are a staple food in many cultures and made into a variety of shapes. The most common noo ...

is shown checkmating

Remi Kabaka Remi Kabaka (born 27 March 1945) is a Nigerian Afro-rock avant-garde drummer. He worked with John Martyn, Hugh Masekela, on '' Rhythm of the Saints'' by Paul Simon, and '' Short Cut Draw Blood'' by Jim Capaldi. He was also an important figure in th ...

, one of the producers for ''The Now Now'' and the voice actor of

Russel Russel is an alternate spelling of Russell. Russel may also refer to: People with the given name *Russel Arnold (born 1973), Sri Lankan cricketer *Russel Crouse (1893–1966), American playwright *Russel Farnham (1784–1832), American front ...

, during a round of chess. Ace Copular,

Murdoc Murdoc is a fictional character that appears in the ABC television series ''MacGyver'' and in the CBS reboot series of the same name. In both portrayals, Murdoc is an assassin and frequent antagonist of both series. Original series Murdoc ...

's temporary replacement, is then seen observing two men play basketball in front of a mural of

. After a player makes a successful dunk, Ace deflates the ball with a pocketknife, ending the game. After this, various video clips of local residents are shown. Near the end of the video, Russel can be seen standing on the side of the boardwalk. When 2-D skates in his direction, he extends his leg and trips him. When 2-D recovers, his white eyes turn black, and he attempts to skate again, only to end up falling. The video was produced by The Line in collaboration with Blinkink and Ruffian, with rotoscoping by Trace VFX. It was directed by Gorillaz co-creator

Jamie Hewlett Jamie Christopher Hewlett (born 3 April 1968) is a British comic book artist and illustrator. He is the co-creator of the comic book ''Tank Girl'' with Alan Martin (writer), Alan Martin and the virtual band Gorillaz, alongside Blur (band), Blur ...

and co-directed by Tim McCourt, Max Taylor, and Evan Silver.

Remixes

On 12 July 2018, a single containing two remixes of the song by British indie pop band

and German EDM producer

was released. The Superorganism remix adds lead singer Orono Noguchi's voice to the song along with a snippet of rap lyrics from another Gorillaz song,

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...

, while the DJ Koze remix is mostly instrumental.

Personnel

– vocals, synthesizer, guitar, additional drum programming *

– guitar, additional vocals * James Ford – bass guitar, synthesizer, drums * Remi Kabaka Jr. – percussion, drum programming *John Davis – mastering engineer *Mark DeCozio – additional engineering *Samuel Egglenton – engineering assistant * Stephen Sedgwick – mixing engineer, recording engineer, engineering

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{authority control 2018 songs 2018 singles Gorillaz songs George Benson songs Songs written by Damon Albarn Parlophone singles Warner Records singles Songs written by James Ford (musician) Songs written by Remi Kabaka Jr. Jazz fusion songs British funk songs Songs about loneliness