This week’s video is for the song “That Boy is Cra-Zy!” from my “The Great Black Hope” album!
AVAILABLE ON “THE GREAT BLACK HOPE” ALBUM – Click HERE for download info!
INSIGHT INTO A SONG:
It’s time to get your b-boy on!
This song started out with the beat. After being inspired by Soulja Boy and The Ying-Yang Twins – both of whom were able to make hit songs with beats that didn’t really have a lot of instruments involved in the beats – I decided to make an instrumental that only had drum sounds in it. I used high-hats, whoops, turn-table scratches, and that’s pretty much it.
I had this beat on my computer for MONTHS. Like, I made it back in May of 2008 (I think) and knew I wanted to make a song to it, but had no idea what type of song. All I knew is, with the way the beat sounded, it made for a good old-school rap sounding song.
Fast-forward a few months later: I was coming up with songs for “The Great Black Hope” album, and, because I was short on cash, I had to make most of the beats myself. This meant going back and using anything that was in my arsenal, no matter how odd it may sound, and making a song out of it. I came back to this beat, and…
…well, I still didn’t have a song to it, let alone a chorus.
Sometimes, when I get stuck, I’ll go back and listen to previous songs I made for inspiration. On my very first album – “The A.P.T. EP” – I made a song called “Imma Skitzo.” The song is very much in the same vein as an Eminem song; I basically say whatever I want, regardless of whether it’s insulting or not, and I put together a lot of words and phrases that don’t really cohesively go together. Yet, because of the song title, I was able to get away with it.
I thought about that, and realized that I hadn’t made that type of song in a LONG time. Because of the whole “Obama Milli” song taking off I had grown a fan base, and didn’t want to say anything too outrageous to upset them or chase them away.
BUT, seeing as I still wasn’t selling as many albums as I would like, I figured that the small number of people who might buy my new album wouldn’t mind that type of song, so long as it was ultimately entertaining.
In the chorus for “Imma Skitzo,” the very last line I say is, “That boy is craa-zy!” I liked the way I said it, and thought I could actually make that into part of a chorus. All I had to do was figure out WHY I was crazy in the song, put those parts in the chorus, then make a song up where I said dumb stuff.
I finally figured out the chorus, then went about writing the song. The nice thing about these types of songs is I’m able to do them the same way I do my freestyles – namely, write a bunch of random ideas down, figure out which ones sound the best, place them in an order that flows well, then record!
This song isn’t as crazy-sounding as “Imma Skitzo” was, but I did make sure to mention a few things in there that may make people do a re-wind. Specifically, I mention Lance Bass, Michelle Obama, Toby Keith, and Tyga, a.k.a. the bastard who took my “Obama Milli” song and not only performed it on tour, but tried to take credit for it as well. What a punk!
This is one of my favorite songs in general. The beat is bangin’, and it’s even got a break-down in the middle of the song!
Some Interesting Song Tidbits:
1. In the “Obama Milli” song, I did a whole 4 lines where I talked about how fine Michelle Obama was and how, if she were single, I’d “hit.” Many people who liked the song took a pause at these lines and thought they were disrespectful. So, for this song, I decide to “apologize” to her, only to end up reiterating what I said I’d do but in a nicer way 🙂
2. I mention Tyga in this song because, as the story was told to me, the person who re-made the beat I re-made with the “Obama’s” in it gave it to Tyga on the condition that he’d give me and him a shout-out. Which he never did. Admittedly, him being able to make more money off the song than me, AND perform it, pissed me off more than you can imagine.
3. I figured since “B-boy” is a popular term, there had to be a way to include girls into the equation – thus, the word “G-girl,” which I made up. At least I think I did…
INSIGHT INTO A VIDEO SHOOT:
I already knew this was going to be a dance video. I just didn’t know how much energy it would take up!
I did the first shots with me wearing the blue sweatshirt top. 2 minutes in, I was dang near ready to pass out. Dancing for a long time is HARD, especially when you don’t work out or run or jog. (In case you’re curious, I have a high metabolism. That’s why I’m so skinny despite never working out).
Nevertheless, I knew that once I started down the dance path I had to finish up. I did four different shots, in four different outfits, at four different angles. Even though it would just be me dancing in the entire video, giving people different things to look at makes it less boring than if I were to simply stand in one place and dance the whole time!
I also wanted to have each dressed up character have a different attitude. I don’t know if I pulled this off too well, but the guy in the blue sweatshirt was the “dance for fun” guy; the one with the low-floor angle was “B-boy dancing” guy; the dressed up guy was the “Dance with flavor” guy; and the guy with the brownish shirt on was the “old-skool dancing” guy.”
Midway through filming, I realized that I wanted to not only take a musical jab at Tyga, but a video one as well. So, for the fifth shot, I dressed up in a hoodie and wore some nerdy classes. I made sure in post-edit to mention that the person I’m doing a bad impression of is Tyga, and people familiar with both versions of the “Obama Milli” song should appreciate my get-back at him.
Some Interesting Video Shoot Tidbits:
1. I filmed this entire thing in my apartment. It’s a smaller apartment than my last place, so figuring out how many angles I can actually use gets harder with each video!
2. The place where I’m dancing with the brown shirt on is my kitchen. I had to move the glass table all the way over near the fridge to have it out of the shot.
3. In the last shot, that fall into the bathroom was PLANNED. It was a last minute idea, but one I figured would end the video on a hilarious note.
4. In the first chorus, I mention making out with Eartha Kitt. In the last part, I mention Amy Whinehouse. However, I cut out the second chorus in the song where I mention making out with Anna Nicole. Why? ‘Cause I know how people attention spans are on YouTube, and with me adding the Tyga jab in, it would stretch out the video longer to keep the entire song in. If you want to hear it, GET THE ALBUM!
5. Estimated time for editing this video: about 4 hours. I tend to dilly-dally around now that the MAC edits these things so much faster, so the actual edit time was probably shorter.
That’s all for now – only 11 more videos left to go! See ya next Sunday!
-A.P.T.