So, I’ve done 32 videos so far as part of this 52-week, year-long experiment, and, so far, the one that continues to get the most views is the remix I did to Lil’ Wayne’s “A Milli,” “O-Bama O-Bama.” The song continues to get comments on YouTube, both from my Youtube page and the countless others that have reposted the video (or, in many cases, just the song).
I don’t have a problem with this – as long as it keeps giving me exposure (and money, as the song continues to sell on this site – thanks for the help, everybody!), it’s all good – but I wish that some of my other videos would get the same amount of attention. The “O-Bama O-Bama” video only took an hour to shoot – I have other videos that took most of my whole day to shoot, be it going to various locations or having a more interesting concept in terms of story-telling… I even have songs that, in my opinion, are better than the aforementioned song, or, at the very least, on par with it.
Of course, all of this is the “artsy” part of me. Almost all artist who have that one hit song usually end up seeing it as a gift/curse. Bobby McFerrin, the guy who did “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” was a musician who could play dozens of instruments; yet, to this day, he’s always been slightly pissed off that his greatest hit was, ironically enough, one that didn’t even use any!
Still, I think the main reason some of my other videos – the ones outside of my parodies, which ALWAYS get plenty of views – may not get as many views is because I’m not advertising properly.
I see channels on YouTube with videos that get thousands of hits within the first day or two of being up – and these are people that aren’t “famous” like Diddy or Obama, but everyday Joes and Janes doing video blogs and/or other stupid stuff – and I always wonder what they did to grow that kind of audience. I thought the “O-Bama O-Bama” would get people checking out my other stuff – and it did, but not on as large of a scale as I would like.
I’m learning more and more about how I can get word of my stuff out to other people on a larger scale, so I know I have some time. And even if it doesn’t happen by the time I finish filming all my videos… well, the good part of that is, I plan on setting up another website where I can post up all my videos and then REALLY start to advertise them as a means of… hmm, on second thought, I’ll keep that to myself for now.
The point is, since I’ve made a conscious effort to make the majority of my songs/videos about things that are always relatable and constantly current (minus all the “O-Bama” or “G.W. Bush” stuff), I can still advertise for my videos as a means of (a) showing off my talents and (b) other things I won’t yet mention.
And of course, if you’re reading this, it means I’ve, at the very least, figured out how to get a few loyal A.P.T. fans – all success has to start from somewhere, people!
As for this week’s video, I’m going out of town for the holidays to see my cousins – including the one who had a small line on one of my tracks on “The A.P.T. LP” – so, with any luck, I’ll be able to film a video for it (finally) thus completing my goal of filming a video for ALL the songs from that album. Since it’s been a while since I’ve done any videos relating to that album, I’ll be adding the song as a bonus track for my next album, “The Great Black Hope,” dropping Wednesday, January 7th, 2009.
Now all I have to do is figure out how to advertise for the album. Hmmm….
I’m certainly glad I was able to use most of the house for the “Killed the Beat” video. For all I know, it may be one of the last times I film in that house.
Why? Because me and my housemates have to move out!
Unbeknownst to us, our landlord wasn’t actually using our money to pay the mortgage, so the house got sold in a foreclosure sale last week. According to the bank that bought the house, we have 2 weeks from the date of sale to move out. (Thought they said they would try to see if they could extend it a bit to give us time to find a place to live. How nice of them.)
So, where does that leave me? Right now, I have NO idea. I’ve been pondering what I want to do next… and what I really, REALLY want to do is move out to California.
Actually, I wanted to move out to California after Atlanta, but I didn’t have enough money saved up. Now that I have a little bit of money, I figure I could probably do a few things and complete a few goals at the same time. What goals am I talking about?
GOAL #1: DRIVING ACROSS COUNTRY
Okay, so I don’t have a car, meaning I wouldn’t drive. But I could catch a bus or train and do the same thing, going state-to-state and seeing different parts of the country. Of course, I had wanted to do this during the summertime when it’s nice outside, but hey – a trip is a trip!
GOAL #2: MOVE TO CALIFORNIA
Given the number of talents I have that are art-related – directing, acting, writing, etc. – it just seems like I’d have a better chance of getting noticed – or, at the very least, an agent/manager – if I went to a location where that stuff was more prevelent. Not that I couldn’t get discovered or be successful in D.C. – I just prefer the weather out there, sunny and warm vs. rainy and cold like it is where I am right now.
So, I have a few things to think about. In the meantime, some good news: I received an e-mail from a record label in London asking me if I’d be willing to perform for them. They also said they’d be willing to pay for my travel expenses. I don’t know if it’s a joke or not (I’m always skeptical about these sorts of things), but they sent phone numbers and web site addresses, and the site they had looked REAL professional, so hopefully it’s legit – just the fact that they’d pay for my travel makes the trip more than worth it!
As for this week’s video… once again, it’s one of those things where I have NO idea what song or video I want to do. I only have a couple of songs off “The Next Black President” mixtape I could do videos for – I just have to figure out where and how I would film them. But you know me – something will be up by Sunday!
This week’s video is for the song “Killed the Beat,” featuring (and produced by) Myxtape!
AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON “The Next Black President (a.k.a. Back On My Grind)” Mixtape – Click HERE for download info!
INSIGHT INTO A SONG:
First things first: the guest artist on this track is Myxtape, a 17 (or maybe 18 now) up-and-coming MC and producer from Philly. His songs are awesome, and his production skills – as you’ll be able to hear in this song - are incredible. His website is www.myspace.com/Myxtape. I did this song and the video for it because (a) I believe that you best help yourself by first helping others, and (b) his stuff is pretty good!
After the “O-bama O-Bama” song started getting big on YouTube and on the radio, I began getting messages from people asking me to collaborate with them on tracks. This wasn’t completely surprising to me – I figured that other people would hear the song on their local radio stations, track it down on the net and then try to do songs with me in the hopes of getting themselves on radio as well. Just imagine: “Hey, play my song – it features the ‘O-bama Milli’ guy!”
At the same time, I figured if I started to do some collaborations, it would also help me to expand the listening audience for my music. Think about it; if I do a collaboration, the person I do the song with is going to try to get at least a few of his friends to listen to the song. If those people like my verse, they might try to find more of my stuff. So, in a sense, doing collabos would help both me AND the other person out!
I put a video up on YouTube telling people I was looking to do collaborations. I told them if they wanted me to do a song with them, they needed to send me the beat, an idea for a song, and that, if I liked what they sent, I’d have it back to them within 24 hours.
Lo and behold: I got quite a few people who sent me messages. One of them was an artist who goes by the name “Myxtape” (pronounced “mix tape.” I’m sure you could have figured that out on your own). He asked me to collaborate on a track he had made the beat for called “Killed the Beat.” He also sent me the beat, along with one simple instruction: that I “kill it,” or in layman’s terms, “do a really, REALLY good job on your part of the song.”
I took a listen to the beat… and I LOVED it. It has a bluesy kind of feel to it, yet just jams when you play it. He added his own drum pattern to the sample (I forget which one), and he was also kind enough to place his verse on the first half of the track. All I had to do was add in my verse on the second part, and the song would be complete.
I listened to the track quite a few times before I actually typed anything. As is the case with collabo songs, I always feel pressure to try and match up to, or outdo, the person I’m collaboration with. I consider it “friendly competition,” but it’s even more important to come strong with a verse when you’re the last person on the track – otherwise, the next time people hear the song, they’ll listen to the first verse, then turn to another song without listening to your verse ever again!
After a long thought process, I decided to take the title of the song – “Killed the Beat” – literally. I mapped it out like I just got confronted by the cops for actually “killing” the track, i.e. doing such a good job on it that I murdered it and had to be taken to trial. I don’t want to give too much away here, but because I took the title of the song literally, I was able to come up with a pretty awesome scenario for the verse that would, unbeknownst to me at the time, pave the way for an equally impressive video idea later.
So far, this is my favorite “official” collaboration track that I’ve done, and one of my favorite songs on “The Next Black President” myxtape – er, mixtape!
Some Interesting Song Tidbits:
1. In the first part of my verse, I sound kinda like Busta Rhymes when I say, “Shoulda SEEN the way I did it…” He always emphasizes his words like the way I said “seen,” and he’s one of my favorite rappers. I think I was thinking about his technique when I wrote that line.
2. My favorite line in the song: “…and I keep coming back like a porno star’s ass, riiiiight?” This is what rappers call a “double entendre.” I hate explaining rap lines, as I like people to get the insight on their own, but… this line is smart because I say “I keep coming back,” i.e. I continue to stay rapping, but in reference to the second half of the line – “like a porno star’s ass” – it’s funny because, in adult films, a woman will oftentimes end up having her partner’s man juice on (or in) her rear end. Yes, it’s a disgusting line, but it’s also quite clever and funny!
3. And yes, in case you’re curious, I was able to deliver this back to Myxtape within 24 hours. Once I came up with the rhyme, it took me two hours to type up, record, mix and master… and then I had to wait until the next day to go to Panera Bread to actually send it to him!
INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:
When putting together “The Next Black President” mixtape, I KNEW I wanted to add this song on it. I also knew that, despite not living anywhere near the artist I collaborated with for the track, I wanted to shoot a video to it.
I’ve actually had the video I idea for this song in mind for about a month, though I was only recently able to finalize my vision for the visual. Because the beat reminded me of something I’d hear out of a detective/spy movie, a la “James Bond,” I wanted to shoot a video where I was a policeman out looking for the person responsible for killing – what else? – a “beat” for a song.
I didn’t know it at the time I recorded my verse, but the scenario I painted in the song allowed me to further play off the whole “searching for the murder” theme. Originally, I was going to be a cop or a detective for the video, but I don’t have any of those types of clothes at my disposal, and I definitely was NOT going to buy them.
However, I DID have the right clothes to dress up like a suave spy! Black suit jacket? Check! Black pants? Check! Black tie? Check! White shirt? Check! Black shoes? Check!
Furthermore, doing the whole “spy” thing would allow me to get away with things in the video that cops and detectives can’t, like breaking into places unannounced. And who’s place would I be breaking into?
My alter-ego, of course! Yes, once again, I took on duel roles as both the spy AND A.P.T., the recording artist who “Killed the Beat.”
Incidentally, playing 3 roles in a video – spy, me, and director – is HARD work. Because I was interacting with myself, I had to mentally plan out my shots in advance. Furthermore, it was raining outside, and there were scenes where either the spy or my regular self would come in from the rain – but I couldn’t shoot those shots and then do a shot of me where I’m dry, as it would look odd when editing it later on.
I did about 43 takes for this video – easily the most takes I’ve done for a video since “Bust My G.A.T.” – and most of those were due to having to go back and re-film something as a result of forgetting how a previous shot I took wouldn’t match up with a current one.
As for Myxtape’s part – the guest artist on the track – I used pictures of him I found on his myspace page in the parts where I’m looking up info on A.P.T.’s laptop. I wanted him represented in some way in the video so he’d get some face exposure – hopefully this will help him get some views on his page, as he is a very talented artist!
Some Interesting Video Tibits:
There are actually so many interesting tidbits for this video, I have to try and remember it shot-by-shot…
1. As I’ve said before, I have NO help directing these videos. Every single camera angle was done using a chair, a suitcase, an ironing board, and mini-boxes, all stacked in different ways and angles to get the shots I wanted.
2. The phone ring song is “C.R.E.A.M.” byWu-Tang clan. Yes, I actually have that song as a ringtone on my phone!
3. Anything you hear where my voice sounds extra clear was done in post-production.
4. Somehow, a good majority of my videos have bathroom shots. What the dilly, yo?!?
5. For the part of the video where I chase myself into my room, I had to film myself in A.P.T. clothes running into the room, then allow the camera to keep filming while I changed into my spy gear. This is why the shot looks so seamless!
6. It was raining HARD for most of this shoot. However, when it came time to me to film the part where I’m outside as the spy, it had stopped raining. Talk about good timing!
7. Incidentally, I had the entire shoot for this thing mapped out in my head, and didn’t shoot it in the order it’s seen on film. However, this did cause a few problems. There were certain shots I couldn’t use or had to cut short to keep the continuity of the video in tact. For example, the shot of me coming into the house as A.P.T. had a full shot of me opening the door. However, when I did that, you could see the screen door behind it. The problem, however, is that at the end of the video I shot it to where it looked like that door didn’t exist. Therefore, I couldn’t show the whole shot of me coming in because people would wonder later why there was no screen door when I finally get caught!
Also, there’s a shot where, after rolling into the house to look for evidence, I roll back up and walk into the next room. However, in that shot, the cardboard box is still on the plastic holder. If you remember, that same box got knocked over when I went to look for evidence. Therefore, the other shot couldn’t be used.
8. Estimated time for editing: a LONG time. Like, about 8 or 9 hours, mostly due to adding in post-production sounds.
That’s all for now – only 21 more videos to go! See ya next week!
Note: The “Back on My Grind” video is now available for FREE Download! Click HERE for more info!
This week’s video is for the song “Back On My Grind,” produced by SINIMA beats!
AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY ON “The Next Black President (a.k.a. Back On My Grind)” Mixtape – Click HERE for download info!
INSIGHT INTO A SONG:
While surfing online one day at my favorite beat site, www.soundclick.com, I came across an instrumental produced by SINIMA Beats called “Back On My Grind.” When I heard the beat, it sounded like something Jay-Z would rap over – something akin to his “Roc Boys” song, as it had lots of horns and had an old-school soulful sound.
I knew I wanted to make a song to it, and the title of the beat seemed appropriate enough for a song title as well. At the time I downloaded the beat, though – sometime around July or August – I didn’t want to put out a song called “Back” to anything, especially since I hadn’t put out an album yet that had been heard by enough people to warrant me putting out that type of song.
Fast-forward to November, though, and it was a completely different situation. Now that my first mixtape, “The O-Bama Mixtape,” and my “first” known album, “The A.P.T. LP,” has been purchased by a few people, I felt I could now put out a legitimate “Back” song, especially since I hadn’t released a “new” collection of songs via mixtape or album since August.
Of course, since I’ve been releasing a new video each week since May 2008, I’ve never really been gone from the public eye. So, in the chorus, I made note of that fact by adding the tag, “I never left, took a break, now I gotta get mine!”
As for the song itself, it’s what I call a “fighter track.” The beat is one with a tempo that sounds like it’s ready to be pummeled lyrically.
I come up with songs in one of two ways: writing/typing it down, or freestyling it. For this song, I wanted to write it down, but have it sound like I would sound when I freestyle. When I freestyle, I tend to do it in a way that doesn’t sound so structured – i.e. no “a-b-a-b” style, and the end of every line doesn’t mean it’s the end of my sentence (sometimes they can end in the middle of another line, or just be one long run-on sentence). Words can be stretched to sound different if I want to have them rhyme with another word, and there‘s lots of free association… basically, I wanted to make a song that didn’t sound so song-like, but more freestyle-like.
For this type of song, the words don’t really matter as much as how they sound. Not to say that the words aren’t important – it’s just that, given the beat being used, it’s how the words gel with the tempo that matter more. Again, it’s a “fighter track;” therefore, I wanted the delivery of the words to give the listener a feeling akin to watching someone punching a punching bag.
It’s also an upbeat instrumental, so I wanted the song to be motivational. I talk about being on my hustle, grinding hard, being militant on the microphone, crushing my competition, and wanting to be taken seriously as a contender in the music game. It’s the kind of song that other people coming up in the game can listen to and FEEL like they can relate!
Some Interesting Song Insights:
1. The one thing I hate about reading song lines while recording is, sometimes I mess up a word, or may misread a word and say something else instead. There’s a line where I say: “…but somehow, they be getting’ drawn/Into the cipher – rap cipher…” The first “cipher” is supposed to be the word “circle,” but I misread it. However, I liked the way it sounded, so I kept it in.
2. This song has a lot of syllable rhymes. It’s where words that may not rhyme with each other sound similar due to how they are said. For example, there’s a line where I say: “I go back, and analyze/Fix the franchise…” The words “and,” “analyze” and “franchise” don’t technically rhyme, but the “-an” and “-ize” parts of the words make the sentence flow well together. See how many instances of this you can find throughout the song – it’s fun!
3. My favorite line in the song: “Don’t call me a buster, I’ll BUST ya, homeboy!” It’s the last line of the second verse, and it’s not very clever, but it has the most energy of any line in the song.
INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:
This was one of those video ideas that didn’t take me too long to come up with. Actually, I’ve already thought out most of the video ideas for songs on this mixtape. I guess this is because it’s been so long since I’ve written new stuff that I had time to think out how I’d film visuals for the songs!
For this song, I knew I wanted to film it like I was training for a boxing match, only instead I’d be training to record. The set-up for this video is actually influenced by LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out” video, where he did the song in a boxing ring. (Incidentally, this gives you reference to how old I am – the fact that I remember that video, and not just because I saw it on some damn “Rap Videos of the 90s” special on VH1.)
I wanted to look like I was working out, so I opted to wear my grey hoodie, the same one I wore for the mirror image of me in video #23, “True Lyricist,” while spitting the song on the mic. As for the rest of the video, I wear a simple white hanes undershirt and jeans.
I thought it would be funny if I filmed myself attempting to work out, only not very well. I don’t have a lot of muscle, so I wanted the video to demonstrate why. I do push ups but peter out, get cramps while doing crunches, run up and down steps and fall down, and try to swallow eggs a la “Rocky,” but end up… well, you’ll have to see the video to find out!
Some Interesting Video Insights:
1. Now that I no longer have a camera stand, you may be wondering how I’m able to get all my camera shots without any help. Allow me to give you a few insights:
* For the shot of me rapping in front of the microphone, I used a chair, topped with a medium-sized suitcase, topped with a miniature ironing board, topped with a box containing a mini-modem, topped with a box for a lap-top plug.
* For the shots of me doing floor exercises, I used a medium-sized suitcase, topped with a miniature ironing board.
* For the bathroom shot, I used a chair, a box containing a mini-modem, topped with a box for a lap-top plug.
* For the stairs scene, there’s a closet directly in front of the stairway that had a shelf on it.
* For the kitchen scene, there were three shots. For the shot of me cracking the eggs and cooking them, I placed the camera on top of a box of penne pasta; for the shot of me drinking the eggs, I placed the camera on the cabinet shelf panel; and for the shot of me eating, I used a different cabinet shelf panel.
As I always like to say, I ALWAYS find a way to get the shot I want!
2. This was also the first video where I did all the shots sideways. I experimented with this a little bit in video #24, “Blow It All,” but I have yet to do a full video using a shot at this angle. Since it’s the 30th video, I figured I would try something different by doing the whole video this way!
3. I actually had some workout shorts and/or sweats I was going to wear. However, when I get into recording mode, I sometimes forget to change wardrobe. So, while I remembered to change my shirt, I ended up keeping the jeans on. Really, now, who works out in jeans?!?
4. There’s a line in the song where I say, “Rap Urkels getting wedgies, I’m like, ‘Did I do that?!?’” I thought it would be funny to dress up Urkel-style for that part of the song, so I put on some dress pants, a nerdy-looking shirt, and my nerdy glasses (first worn in video #10, “Retirement Home,” when I dressed like the old man).
5. In the scene where I try to drink the eggs, I actually DID take a drink and place the eggs in my mouth. Unfortunately, I didn’t place the pan high enough into the shot for you to see me spit the egg into it before cooking it. After I shot it, I cooked the eggs, placed them on the plate, then went to check the shot. Lo and behold, I didn’t get the shot I wanted, and I didn’t want to cook anymore eggs. So, I had to re-shoot it the second time, and act like I was drinking then spitting the egg back into the cup instead of the pan, THEN pouring it into the pan.
6. Estimated editing time: I don’t know. I was watching “Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2″ on TBS for 5 hours while editing this thing, plus I had to listen to my roommates argue about whether or not they loved each other, THEN I had to catch a train to visit a friend of mine… in short, there were a lot of distractions, so I’m sure the actual editing time was much shorter than the span of time I actually finished it in.
That’s all for now! Only 22 more videos to go – see ya next Sunday!
Guess what? Im back! -
Hustlin hard, back on my grind,
Ready to shine, Im out to get mine
Say good- bye to the good guy
Used to be nice, I paid the price
Good guy going bad? (sa right)
So I be – makin the moves,
Showin improve, get in the groove
I never lose, I win, make a mistake, rarely
And if I do, I go back, and analyze
Fix the franchise, playa, Im a seasoned vet
A.P.T., say the name, it demands respect
Swing to the left, ladies know Im never bereft
And if I – get me a chance
Im tryna enhance wallets like Wallace
Big Poppa, mo money, no problems
Its a – swing and a miss, these players is pissed
They bout to -get dismissed, they wish that they was this
But they – cant see me
Got eyes like Stevie, tryna wonder how they blunder
Im fitna take em under,
Chorus x2:
Im BACK!
Back on my grind – brothas wanna hate, but its a waste of time
Im BACK!
Back on my grind – I never left, took a break, now I gotta get mine
Verse TWO:
Play scrabble – say babble, ran sack em,
I get militant, on the mic, Im diligent
Its – not a façade, gifted by God
Im on my job, no pay-roll, got fly girls girls like J.Lo
They – dont know, How I spit – divine lyrics
Moves spirits like a haunted house – Im out
Peace! But no peace to the competition
They try – not to listen, but some how they be gettin drawn
In to the cipher – rap cipher
Rap Urkels gettin wedgies, Im like, Did I do thaaaaat?
Sorry – no evidence I was in your residence
My presence is felt, and ever since
I was a little boy, I been tryin, to pump iron
But I never grew muscle, still I know I gotta tussle
Because I got the – heart of a lion, the mind of a hustla
Dont – call me a busta, Ill bust ya, homeboy,
Note: The “Go Hard Remix” video is now available for FREE Download! Click HERE for more info!
This week’s video is for the song “Go Hard (Remix)” featuring DJ Khaled, T-Pain and Kanye West (produced by The Runners)!
This song appears on the following mixtape:
THE NEXT BLACK PRESIDENT (a.k.a. BACK ON MY GRIND)!
Featuring the hits: “Go Hard Remix” with DJ Khaled, Kanye West and T-Pain, plus “O-bama O-Bama MegaRemix” with Tyga, “#1” with Jay-Z, “Where My Money At” and more!!
In putting together my latest mixtape, “The Next Black President (a.k.a. Back On My Grind),” I was looking for songs that I wanted to parody.
As I did more and more original songs for the mixtape, though, I started to realize that (a) I had a lot of good ORIGINAL material, and (b) if I wanted to have people start taking me seriously as an artist, it would be wise to release a mixtape that didn’t have any parodies on their so people could see that I had real skill.
Prior to this thought, though, I had downloaded the beat to this song called “Go Hard,” featuring DJ Khalid, T-Pain and Kanye West. I heard the song once back in August, but it wasn’t until about 2 weeks ago after I saw the music video for it that I really began to like the song.
I downloaded the original song, and thought to myself: “Man, I would LOVE to use this beat for a song on my mixtape!” I found the beat, and was going to try and make a parody – something obvious, like “Go Hard,” only talking about trying to get it up in the sack – but decided against it. (Plus, I kinda did that idea already with “Erectile Dysfunction,” and I don’t wanna make too many songs about that, lest the ladies think I really have a problem performing my “manly” duties!)
Instead, I decided it would be cool if I did a remix to it. I didn’t want to do two full verses, though, so I decided to keep T-Pain’s chorus and Kanye’s first verse, then have my verse come in second. A pretty ballsy move on my part – there’s always a danger as a new artist that people will hear the first verse of a song, then skip to the next one without ever hearing your verse. Still, the verse I had sounded better as the second verse, so that’s where I put it!
As for my verse… well, even though I didn’t go the parody route, I still ended up talking about “going hard” in the sense of popping Viagra and Enzyte! I talk about going hard like a man in Vegas who pops the helpful little pills, only to end up taking too many and staying “hard” for more than 10 hours. It ends up being a metaphor for how “hard” I go on a track even when told to “stay down.” Even though the verse is funny, I had to make sure my delivery was just as HAAAAARD as T-Pain and Kanye’s verses. If you ask me, I think I pulled it off!
Some Interesting Song Insights:
1. Back when I did “The KKKramer Song” (from The A.P.T. LP – get your copy today!), I mentioned how I don’t like to use the N-word in songs. Therefore, once I downloaded the original song and the instrumental, I went through the entire song and edited out all uses of the N-word by T-Pain, Kanye and DJ Khalid. Yes, I kept all the other curse words in there. No, I don’t know why it doesn’t bother me to hear those other words but not the N-word – at least the other ones don’t sound racist!
2. I was originally going to just use the Viagra metaphor in one line – i.e. “I’m fitn’a go hard/harder than an old man on Viagra” – but that seemed to be the very obvious route go to, and I couldn’t think of any metaphors beyond that. This is why I dragged the scenario out all the way until near the end of the verse. It’s similar in vein to the way Eminem would have done it.
3. The last line of my verse is spoken by Kanye – “F–k y’all n—ers, I’m outta here!” The reason I left that line in the song? When he says the word “here” it’s at the same time as T-Pain when he starts singing the chorus. I couldn’t edit the transition into the chorus without having part of Kanye’s “here” in the mix. Rather than try to fight it, I just said “Screw it – I’ll let him have the last line of my verse instead!”
INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:
I really, really, REALLY wasn’t planning on shooting a video for this today.
I was actually going to shoot a video for “Hooptie,” the last song off “The A.P.T. LP” that needs a video. I even had the idea for how I want to shoot it.
Unfortunately, that idea meant having an actual car to shoot the video in. I don’t have a car, I didn’t have enough time to use my brother’s car (since I didn’t think of it until after we were about to hit the road back home from my Grandma’s Thanksgiving gathering), and I didn’t have enough money to rent a car. I start my new job today, though, so I should (hopefully) have enough money in soon to shoot the video for it within the next 2 weeks.
In the meantime, I knew I still needed a video, so I figured, “Hey, why not shoot one for one of the songs off the new mixtape?” And here we are!
The video shoot idea for this one was REAL simple. I wanted to do the video in a style similar to the original “Go Hard” video – not with the same camera shots, mind you, but with the idea of simplicity: just me in front of a camera, along with T-Pain and Kanye West…
Oh, wait – I don’t actually KNOW those guys well enough to call them down to my video shoots… Hmm…
So, I went with my second idea: I could portray them by wearing symbolic things indicating I was them. For the part of T-Pain, I wanted to get a top hat and dreads.
One problem: I’m broke!
So, after scrounging around my room, I found a long and narrow rectangular box that looked kind of like a top hat. However, the flaps on the side wouldn’t stay straight enough to give it a 100% top-hat look. After a quick deliberation with myself, I decided to add some paper eyes to the front flap, thus giving the appearance that I had eyes even though the flap covered up my actual eyes. Genius!
For Kanye’s part, I simply wore the Kanye “Stronger” glasses I got back at his concert in May. So far, I’ve worn these glasses in two other videos: “Shout Out 2 My Big Girls” and, most recently (like, last week recently), “Stop Cock-Blockin’.” I also wanted to keep his outfit simple, as he seems to be wearing more down-to-earth stuff in the “Go Hard” video. Thus, the shirt I’m wearing with the name of me and my bro’s ideal record label name, “Buckbo Entertainment.” (You may have first seen this shirt in video #12, “I’m Gonna Make It” – there’s a picture of me and my bro wearing it.)
As for my part, I figured that I, too, should dress down, as if I were just hangin’ out with the guys. I decided to wear the T-shirt I got back in 2004 when I attended the Jay-Z and R. Kelly “Best of Both Worlds” tour (back when they were still talking to each other and hadn’t yet broken up the tour) and some brown shorts (also worn in the “I’m Gonna Make It” video).
And of course, I had to put it in Black and White, just like the original video. All in all, it came out pretty well, and only took 13 minutes to shoot – in one take!
Some Interesting Video Insights:
1. The camera itself was kept stationary, similar to what I did in the “Obama Obama” video, only this time I didn’t cut the camera off. I filmed the entire video straight through in one shot so that the background would also look stationary the entire time (i.e. no small little off movements – yes, I notice those types of things).
2. The hardest part of the shoot was wearing the box on my head. Right above me was our chandelier, and I had to duck down so I wouldn’t hit it with the top of the box!
3. I didn’t just want to shoot the video in front of a boring old flat wall. Luckily, the wall I used is one that has 3 squares on it. Sometimes, even a simple addition to a background can make it less boring!
4. I didn’t know what to wear for the “T-Pain” part in terms of clothing, since most of his clothing in his videos seem pretty elaborate. I figured a vest would be a good contrast to “Kanye” and me, who were more dressed down.
5. While editing, it dawned on me to start the song with the first panel of the video. Usually I have all my “Get A.P.T. Stuff” advertisements run BEFORE I actually start the song. However, I wanted people to get into the song right away, as soon as they clicked on it. So, the video runs the length of the song, nothing more, nothing less!
6. Estimated time for editing: About 20 minutes to add the effects, 39 minutes to transfer the video into Windows Media, another 2 hours to cut and splice everything together… so, about 4 hours total. Also, I would have added more edit cuts and effects, but I ended up calling the cops on my roommates after I heard screams of “Stop It! You’re hurting me!” coming from the woman half of the couple. I can’t wait to get my own place…
That’s all for now! Incidentally, “The Next Black President (a.k.a. Back on My Grind)” mixtape is available NOW for FREE download – consider it my Christmas gift to you!
