JD [^_-]

Last week Tony Shane (The guy behind our dope videos) showed me a video from one of his good friends JD. I’ve met JD a couple times and is a cool guy, and at first when they told me they were maing music i wasnt sure what to expect. Once Tony showed me “Rider” pleasently surprised of what they showed me. JD [^_-] (yes the robot looking sign is part of his rap name) teamed up with local Chicago director Lewis “Filmboi” Vaughn on the visuals of “Rider”, which to my understanding was a song that was recorded last year sometime. What I really liked about this video is that these young artists are really trying to make a statement about the violence in Chicago that we all know has been completely out of control lately. Check out some words from the director below alongside the video.

 

Shot entirely on the streets of Chicago, IL

Nearing the date of completion of Rider we (Jason & myself) began to notice that it had been nearly a year since Chicago’s Derrion Albert had been killed to circumstances similar in the visual. Unplanned and not even inspired for context, we knew that certain spirits were working with us.

For myself, this visual is not a your average HD, wall post, easy baked videos. Rider is a visual for Chicago, not for people who just know about the city but people who have lived these headlines.  People who don’t just look for landmarks in an independent visual, but can identify with the very textures and grooves of this great city.

After a while we began to see the need of strict treatments futile to the project. How can we explain these aimless acts of violence happening in our city everyday without showing/telling it how is really is. This visual represents the hidden cry of today’s generation, our youth that could have the same fate as Derrion, no matter what age (hence the mask).

http://www.vimeo.com/15207584