I would like to take the time out firstly to say thank you to the first videographer to contact me and contribute some footage towards the upcoming film ‘KING OF THE BEATS – LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT BEAT’.  Julie Schabel hailing from Cleveland was introduced to me by Marlon Williams, one of the main characters in the film.  I had put a post up asking for film makers, photographers if they could help by contributing some footage towards the project.  Street shots of NYC, Sky Lines and urban symbols and architecture.  Marlon recommended that I should get in touch with his friend.

Whilst we was out in NYC last year we didn’t have much time to capture these shots.  I thought in preparation for my next and final trip to NYC to shoot for this film this would be a great way of collecting vital footage and also getting people involved at a very grassroots level.  For the last 20 so years Ive been plugging away at building a reputation within the hip hop community as a film maker and activist.  This is the largest project I have ever taken on.  If you measure success on how much money you made then Ive not been very successful.  Now into my 40s I can think back to when i was in my early 20s and started making my films and going into NYC shooting.  I still feel I have the very same energy and hunger I did back then, but the reality is that time is working against me, so maybe getting a bit of help is not a bad thing.

Hip Hop Culture was always about the underdog to me, that is the story.  The one all the odds are stacked up against, but comes out on top.  Hence I’m talking about the battle.  the challenge I have always faced is that I did everything my self.  Im still hungry and I desire to show others that you can take out all these other corporate funded projects through sheer hard work and determination.  This is not a funded project,  So far its been very organic, funded by my self and those who supported it believing in me so much so they payed their own way to come out to NYC to shoot this film.

I’m very grateful that there are people like Marlon and Julie who can see the bigger picture.  Julie her self has been involved in film for some time too.  This is what she had to say about her self.

‘I got into music photography in high school when all my friends were in punk bands in Cleveland. I would go to shows with my little cameras (mostly disposable or cheap digital ones I managed to get my hands on) and shoot the shows and my friends at the shows. In college in Chicago I started going to the ghetto house/juke party’s and came up when Cool Kids, Flosstradamus and Kid Sister were doing mad shows and throwing parties. I was really influenced by that but wasn’t really going out to shoot at the time, I just have some shitty cell phone pics of parties at sub-t and Town Hall. I started to take music photography seriously when I went to NYC for CMJ in 2011 where I shot ASAP, Danny Brown, Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire, Main Attrakionz, all artists I continue to work with today. We were all just breaking ground that year and its been cool to see how we all grown in this industry. Now I am shooting videos for artists, working with a few production companies and doing freelance coverage of events and shows related to hip hop and electronic music primarily’.

If you feel that you would like to donate or contribute some footage towards the project, feel free to contact me below.