JANUARY 13. I had met Millz just the night before as we discussed for hours about what we wanted in life. Like many of you guys, I had no idea who he was. "A rapper." I've heard that before but he had the cosign from SHHO so I gave him a listen. The next morning I get a phone call from Arnold telling me to come over and witness how Millz writes. I came in the room with my camera and spy him just sitting there with a beat on loop. A few hours later we hit the studio and he records the track. No pen, no paper. This day was significant not only because we shot a part of his promo video, but I got to figure out who Millz was. A dude who is really hungry for the dream, respect and music. Chasing Forever... Oh yeah and exotic girls.
JANUARY 14. There's a time where you'll work for free, especially for your friends. But then eventually, you're going to have to start charging. However the goal is that one day you can go back to doing favors. The only difference from working pro bono this time is that money just doesn't matter. Why? Because it's coming out of your butthole. (You're rich.) I visited my friends, Black Girls, for a video shoot as impromptu as a late night phone call can be. They're a band from Richmond who has recently switched up the members around. I worked with the drummer Stephen Farris for a bit whoring our talents to corporate businesses for some fast dough. Pretty sure he still owes me 500 bucks but whatevz right? Anyways I shot a little video for them way back when. You can check them out here.
JANUARY 17. Back with Millz again. This was the first music video I had ever done. It's a track called Letter to Self and has still yet to be released. My buddy Danny Caporaletti helped me out with this one in downtown Richmond and together we got some pretty cool shots for a simple, rainy video. It was so fun that well, I want to do it professionally!
FEBRUARY 03. This was the second time I had met Nickelus F and the first time I met Drake. Knowing the history between them I thought I was in for a treat. Let's just say it lasted about ten seconds. But who I am to say anything, I got some dope photos and made a little video of the night.
FEBRUARY 14. On Valentines Day, the little lady and I went to see Saves the Day and New Found Glory at the National in Richmond. It was fun among some other things and I always enjoy concert photography especially that of a challenging rock band.
FEBRUARY 17. I had started working with Jack at the end of 2009 and we were finishing up the second of four videos of the series. I told him we needed a rooftop and we finally got one. When I took this photo, I knew it'd basically be his headshot, and I think if you ask him, it is. The video we did this morning was that of his Drake painting which he got signed on the day of the show. Check out more from Jack on his website. My New Year's resolution for him is to update it more.
FEBRUARY 20. Met back up with Nick this night to shoot the trailer for Season Premiere. I think it'd be safe to say that the first half of the year was about school and Nickelus F. We shot the trailer in Carytown and then moved to downtown Richmond to get some more footage which would end up in his EPK as well as the long lost video for Stand Tall. I'll get to it sometime, my bad!
FEBRUARY 25. For whatever reason, I ended helping out shooting one of those shows you would watch on TV about fancy cars at an autoshow. This however was a fustercluck, no offense Marty, of a production held at 2010 North American Handmade Bicycle Show. I did get something out of it though. Worked with a 5D for the first time and also took some snazzy photos. Above is a picture of a bike. It's probably expensive.
FEBRUARY 27. Fast forward a few days to a show at William & Mary. I met the good people of SHHO W&M and got some footage of Nick and Millz for their respective EPKs. We printed the Stay Gold SHHO Tee's and we were all sporting the navy SHHO hoodies you've probably seen around. Fun times with the SHHO family.
APRIL 13. This might be my favorite video that I've done. Given all my videos are pretty simple and involve a lot of walking on the artist's part, What Am I Supposed To Do has a certain mood and feeling that I really like. I also had a great time working with Nick and one of his producer's Stefan Skeeter the whole day. Who would have guessed the Shamrock Festival would show up and give everyone beer the day of shooting? How's that for craft?
APRIL 26. It seems like I've always worked with Corey Smith, but this day was I guess the first official time it was just him as a solo artist. We went over to Minimum Wage Recording over in Oregon Hill to shoot a part of the trailer for his mixtape, The Definition. Jack also accompanied us to this dope studio and later on we picked up Millz for a little musical collaboration. A good start for the busy next few days.
APRIL 27. I started working with Need Supply in Richmond sometime last year. We shot the Fall promo video behind their old office in Manchester and made the best from a bitter, cold day. It was fun and different to say the least and I look forward to what we can do in the future post-college.
APRIL 28. Bringing D Caps back out, we shot the second video, Understand Me, for Millz this day along with celebrating SHHO co-founder Deji's birthday. Yeah, the day Arnold sprained his hand giving birthday punches. The picture above was also for a little photoshoot of 2AM Recordings which Millz is apart of.
APRIL 29. I don't remember why I didn't make this show in time but I didn't. Coming back on Wilco's fourth song of the set, I wasn't allowed to snap any photos in the pit. So I took out my longest lens I had on me and started wandering the sold out crowd for a decent shot. It was a shame because the lighting was too dope.
MARCH 02. This was the Four Year Birthday of The SHHO and we celebrated by working our asses off and bringing J. Cole for all you motherfuckers. Of course back then, no one in town knew who he was and now everyone wants a piece of him. Even VCU with their homecoming. Oh well, I guess that's the price you pay for being super duper cool.
MARCH 11. This was the last day of shooting for me and Nick in a while. We got some more footage for his EPK and some performances for the Stand Tall music video. Speaking of Nick, let me take time out to tell you all that his latest mixtape will be coming out on the eleventh of this month so be on the look out for Yellow Gold. Anyways, it's always interesting to see how many rappers there are out there. On more than one account, someone has stopped us in Richmond and asked what we were doing. Nick then proceeds to give them a little sample. Then they proceed to give us a sample. Everyone has bars. Everyone has beats. But it's easy hanging out with Nick to compare and contrast.
MAY 17. The book. Maybe you've heard of it and maybe you've read it. But we took out a big part of our lives and put our blood, sweat, tears, money, cash, and dough into this SHHO Brand Book. Everything was coming to an end but we just needed to figure out the last part of it. The cast. Here's Neil interviewing Elijah for that very segment. We were so young.
MAY 28. I ended my school year by attending a graduation at the Naval Academy in Maryland. I always tell myself if I didn't have a passion for whatever it is that I do. I'd go to the Naval Academy. College here actually means something as opposed to memorizing facts and going to parties. Anyways, I had such a good time I pissed my pants. I'll tell you about that some other day.
Be on the lookout for Part II coming soon.
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