December 18, 2009

12 Days Of RazMas: Day 5. DEAD! - Top $ Raz

Day 5."DEAD!" Freehiphopnow.com was around for the video shoot for this song. A number of up and coming NYC underground artists make up the main cast of this video. How many faces can you spot?



1. When you wrote "DEAD!" did you have any particular 'real' person in mind, or is this song a general non-specific commentary on a frequent occurrence in many hoods?

An actual person that the kids on the block looked up to was shot and killed in the building across from mine. It was scary to me, instead of learning from his mistakes, they glorified him like he was some martyr. When Terrestrial Papo played the sample for "DEAD!" I immediately came up with the hook, inspired by what was going on at the time in the neighborhood.

2. What kind of feelings if any came about before,during and after the taping of the video?

Before the video I just was focused on making a video that had to do with the song. I'm an advocate for story driven videos, I think anything less is a waste of time. But when the video came out, and I watched it I was like wow. I didn't know the funeral scene was going to be that powerful. Shout outs to Director Lee Walker and cinematographer Max Rejmer for capturing the feel of the song on video.

3. Who were the people involved with the production of the video? How'd you get them involved wit the project?

The entire crew were, like myself, students and alumni of the Cuny Brooklyn College Film Department. Who said you had to spend 40 grand to get a film degree at NYU?

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Tomorrow, "12 Days Of RazMas" continues with Day 6. "Far Rock '95 feat. Mike Love and Vithym"

1 comment:

Unknown said...

TOP $ RAZ speaks the truth.. This song is beautiful and the video is very powerful.. KUDOS

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