Originally Posted by LadyValentine

Special Contributor Todd 1 (taken from the Daily Rant at HipHopNet.Tv)
It’s been awhile since I have gone on a rant, it’s been a busy month and the work is still basically non stop. Let’s re-cap… I flew to NY a few weeks ago to shoot the Nelly “Wadsyaname” Access Granted (flew in on Friday, shot all day sat & flew to Atlanta on Sunday). It was a quick turn around on that show because Universal wanted to air the video the next week (which happened to be the week of the B.E.T. awards). Chris Robinson always has a smooth running set, and Nelly ALWAYS attracts BEAUTIFUL women to his videos… shouts out to both of them! P.S. Nelly… I was never a DJ!!! That was another dude from Philly (RIP)… MTV dog… MTV!!!

Then B.E.T. came to Atlanta and the city was basically party central with events nightly at the Velvet Room, Compound, Studio 72 etc…
The awards jumped off and then the following day I was back on the grind again with the Ludacris Access Granted (Down in Da Durty featuring Bun B & Rick Ross). This was my first time working with the texas boys Dr. Teeth and Bun B (who both were mad cool) and this shoot went smooth. Shouts to Chaka and Luda for always showin’ love ! (it seemed like the entire IDJ staff was there (Chaka (Pilgrim), Margo, Jenya, Tracey Waples, etc…).

There was an old school 80’s jumpoff at studio 72 the night before this video (which I missed) but I heard it was historic. There were performances by MC Lyte, Yo-Yo (I heard she wrecked it acapella), Doug E Fresh, JD, and I even heard Nelly and KRS ONE rocked a little on stage TOGETHER. Shouts out to the Blastmaster (he will always be on any top 10 MC list in my book)

Anyway, this all brings me up to the present… It’s Monday October 22, 2007 and I am sitting in Newark airport awaiting a flight to Atlanta (delayed). I was just running over the previous day’s events and I was like “I should just write this down and share it with the world”. We shot the Access Granted for 50 Cent featuring Akon “Still Will” in Bayonne New Jersey. The director was Jessy Terrero (who is also one of my favorites to work with).

When I first arrived on the set (10:30 a.m.) I was shocked at how loose it was. I figured that it would be mad security and/or mad hassles to get in, but it was none of that. Jessy was outside with his crew and they were setting up for their first shot. I walked up, we dapped up and the day began. Shortly thereafter 50 rolled up (no security, no entourage, just 50 and Chris Lighty). 50 asked Jessy what they were shooting, Jessy laid out the shot and it was on and poppin.

Rappers are real fickle (people in general, but rappers especially), so when I do these shows, I approach it as work. I’m not trying to be their friend or buddy, I’m trying to knock out this show and make it happen without incident. 50 would be an interesting shoot because I actually knew him waaaaaaay before his career popped off, and I was wondering how that history would play itself out (or if he would even “remember”). Back in 2001 I was doing some consulting for a company that produced all of those sports jingles (Go NY Go NY GO! Being the most recognizable one that I could think of). They housed the JMJ records label, and I would see various artists come through the office on a daily basis. 50 was one of those artist, but I could sense something different about him even back then at that time. He would come in the office and be full of energy, and each day he would walk up to me and just start spittin! His flow was bonkers then (it’s crazy, but I break his flow down into 2 chapters – 50 before getting shot & 50 after getting shot) if you want to compare the two… compare power of the dollar to the massacre… way different flows. Anyway, 50 was dope and I was trying to get these dudes to see that he was the one that they should invest in… but they had their sites set on another rapper (who was ill too, but I think they was looking at the method man comparisons that dude got more so than the overall big picture). At that point I was looking to do something with 50 on my own, but we kind of fell out of contact, and the rest as they say is history.

Fast forward back to yesterday… we’re working on the Access Granted, and as the day is going on… 50 is getting more and more at ease with the crew following his every move. It got to the point where he told my camera guy to get in to his brand new customized Pontiac and took him for a “test drive” (at speeds in excess of 120 mph).
Akon arrived on set and the two interacted like old friends. It was very clear that there was a deep mutual respect that they shared for each other. It almost reminded me of how Method Man and Redman clicked when I shot them years ago. Akon is a cool dude and his security is very thorough!

The master performance of the video was dope, but I think the single shots and set ups are going to set this video apart from A LOT of other videos that I have seen recently. Akon performs his solo set up in a psyche ward cell (with the jittery camera effect). **** looks Crazy! 50 has a few set ups that are ridiculous. 1. He is in like a prison cell and he is straight punching the concrete off of the wall 2. He has a fight club scene where he walks into a pit and gets his knuckle game on with a big zeus looking dude.
Jessy definitely did his thing on this shoot and I’m looking forward to the finished product in a few weeks. Sightings on the set include : Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks, Prodigy, Freeway, Fabolous, Evan Ross, DJ Clue, etc…

Some observations: 50 is definitely not depressed or suicidal about Kanye outselling him. In fact, it seems that it just gave him more drive to bury *****s. I heard that they just performed at a show in Philly that Kanye was headlining, and 50 stole the show! (I wasn’t there, but there were a lot of people who verified this story).

50 is known for his crazy ass quotables, so here are a few that stuck out in my mind:

1. (making a joke about stealing the show in Philly) “Kanye should have called his Big Brother and told him he needed some Help” his facial expression when he said this was HILARIOUS

2. (on buying bullet proofed cars) “It’s not worth it… I would rather just pay $100K and get rid of all my enemies! I spent 300k on this car in 2003 and It hasn’t got shot at once… I’m Disappointed!!”

3. (while promoting Akons clothing line someone said that proceeds from each sale benefit children in Africa) 50 then chimes in “and they also benefit a special African Man… AKON!!!”
That’s it for now… I know this is long as hell, but there wasn’t anything else to do (still sitting in airport)

P.S. 50 and I discussed the old days and how those dudes missed out on an opportunity for “something special”. I told him that I was gonna **** with him back then, but I had no idea at that time that it was so much drama involved with him. His reply is another quotable – “I was trying to get on without letting y’all know about my situations… I didn’t want to scare y’all to death!”


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