The video for “This Means War,” a new single by Upstate rapper Ernesto “sympl” Gutierrez, begins with a striking quote from author Joseph Conrad, from his 1899 novella “Heart of Darkness.”

“I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself,” the quote reads. Those words were uttered by the novella’s narrator, Charles Marlow, about the enigmatic, unstable Kurtz, a once-brilliant man who has descended into madness. The novella would eventually inspire the 1979 film “Apocalypse Now,” where the terrifying Kurtz was memorably portrayed by Marlon Brando.

“It was one of these ideas of becoming the thing you hate.”

That’s the introduction to a harrowing video that reveals sympl’s own struggle with his musical identity. Sympl delivers his lightning-fast, rock-hard rhymes over horror-movie musical samples and a relentless beat, mixing tough braggadocio (“My pen is a weapon/I was trained by the legends”) with the weariness of a veteran musician trying to work his way up (“Tired of the hustle/Tired of the struggle/Tired of standing in line”).

The video, directed by sympl’s longtime collaborator Laura Amezquita, intersperses footage of the rapper recording the song in the studio and walking through an urban jungle, a masked warrior storming through alleyways and tagging building walls with graffiti.

“I was kind of going through some stuff personally,” sympl says of the song. “I’d been touring and working within the industry for almost 20 years, and there were a few things I was on the fence with as far as the politics involved and branding and marketing, all of this stuff that I kind felt was smoke and mirrors. And that’s not why I started making music to begin with. It was one of these ideas of becoming the thing you hate.”

“These are stories of being in a warlike situation,” he says, “but really when it comes down to it it’s about noticing our own prejudices.”

As soon as sympl heard the backing track for the song, he immediately began thinking of both “Heart of Darkness” and “Apocalypse Now,” but not in the obvious way that a track called “This Means War” might suggest.

“These are stories of being in a warlike situation,” he says, “but really when it comes down to it it’s about noticing our own prejudices, and realizing that those prejudices are just a mirror of what we are within ourselves. When I heard the beat, then that really heavy bass line, the whole room was rumbling and I saw these specific scenes from ‘Apocalypse Now,’ and I realized I could tie this in with my story.”

What’s perhaps most remarkable about the song itself is that sympl recording his blistering rap in one take. He says he learned the value of working quickly while touring with Cappadonna of the Wu-Tang Clan.

“In one session, I watched him sit down and write and record like seven songs,” he says. “Now that I have a studio at home, it was like, all of the producers are here, we’re in the room, let’s take it and run with it and make it as good as we can while we’re sitting here and move forward. So it was all laid down in one take.”

The video itself is effective in portraying sympl’s struggle with his musical identity at least in part because he looks completely different in the recording studio footage than he does in the other segments.

“One of the biggest challenges was keeping the continuity in place,” he says with a laugh. “The whole project was put on hold for about a year, and by the time we came back to it I’d cut all my hair off. I needed to step away from everything and regroup, and while doing that, I changed my image.”

• In addition to rapping, Gutierrez has also worked as a tour manager for other acts.
• sympl recently took part in “War of Words,” a “battle” between spoken-word artists and MC’s.
• The “This Means War” video was released last April but has been in the works for more than a year.

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