Making it Happen - The Ghetto Love Video

Ghetto Love means more than just the obvious (yes, it's a song about hot sex in the hood) but we also wanted to show how Ghetto Love is something that can be felt when people come together in hood spots to kick it & have fun... but even more than that, we wanted the video to show how Kinky Notti can be the source of that feeling. In other words, the video is a reflection of how Chicago gets it in on a good day.

Note how we said 'on a good day'... days prior we obsessively watched the weather to be sure to shoot on the first hot day in April, that way Bronzeville's 47th street was sure to juke extra hard for the camera. This worked both for & against us. Because of the attention the whole production brought, po-po's kept pulling over, tryna warn us about the danger we were in being out on the street with such expensive cameras & equipment. We weren't really sweating it then, but in hindsight we could understand why the forces urged us to rush along. Chicago made national headlines later that week with waves of senseless & deadly shootings on the south side.

Anyway, we basically had one weekend to make all the video-scenes happen. We were in all kindsa retail & landmark locations: Ibiza Clothing Store, Cut-Rate Liquors, the 47th-Street El platform, The Willis (or Sears) Tower... even that dope graffiti-covered alley in Hyde Park. Then the final scene of the video was shot at Havanah Maxie's uncle's Bronzeville mansion, which made the perfect backdrop for the basement/house-party scene.

That Saturday nite we were up til 3am shooting the house party scenes over & over. Previously we had casted dancers & actors to help with certain scenes. BTW we're really appreciative of those who came through & helped us put our vision into motion. Videos take a lotta hard work & patience to make happen, it's not always just fun & games... until there's a bar scene with real drinks involved... then everybody WINS.

About the staff behind the scenes... the 'Ghetto Love' video was directed by Tshurhad Chivas of Kinky Notti, produced by Kenyon Scott & Takamasa Ota, shot by Kacper Skowron & crew Flint Chaney & Giovazkie Perez. Peace to Gretchen Hasse, Antonio Barnes & 10Photos.net for the bangin' photos. Henri Mitchelle, for a job well-done on the makeup. And lastly, a BIG UP goes out to Dana Anderson & Concrete Runway for the project-consulting. YES, WE ARE WINNING! :D

After The Ghetto Love Shoot is Kenyon Scott's short documentary of how we exhaustedly wrapped things up...

(click to view)

*****PEACE TO THE BABIES*****

SXSW Blind-I Quality Showcase 2010

Yo SXSW was insane! Shouts to the homie Nolis for these tight shots ((video footage of our shows & more coming soon))... These stills are from our performance at the Blind-I Quality Showcase @ Soho Lounge in Austin. We kicked off the Chicago lineup with a short-n-sweet 10-min set. At first we were like 10 mins? Can u say A-D-H-D? but we found out that's how it goes down at south by. Gotta give em your hottest shit & keep it moving. Anyway, this set was dope, even tho most cats in the audience were from Chi & had never even seen us rock. You know we had to get it in & bless em all with the new CD, Kink Not?!

Retro*Grade

**Peace to Mireya Acierto for shooting this event**

So there's this one celebrity fashion designer you may have heard of... She goes by the name of Kesh. One day we checked out her blog ((therealkesh.blogspot.com)) and read "CHICAGO 2NIGHT!!!! I CAN'T WAIT TO COME AND SEE YOU CHICAGO :D"...but at the time she didn't say the exact location and the time, so we were like "where the fuck...when the fuck?!"

Later that day we stopped at a rack sale and ran into our girl Colleen from Heroine Chic ((her belt buckles R.O.C.K...go grab yours now at the Macy's on State St. Chi-IL)). So anyway, Colleen was at the rack sale showcasing her merch when cosmically a deck of flyers appeared to us on her table that read "THE HOLLYWOOD EXPERIENCE...SOUNDTRACK BY DJ JOURNEY (LA) AND KESH (LONDON) @ TABU ULTRALOUNGE"... We were like "wow that's crazy...now we know where the fuck and when the fuck!"

Irena, Eric ((Siver Room)) & Colleen on politic status

So after some small talk we discovered that Colleen was actually a part of the whole "Hollywood Experience" event, along with her girl Dana of Concrete Runway ((stylist/TV show producer...the girl does her thing)) Of course when we found that out, we had a suggestion for "a really hot group from Chicago who could rock the runway"... Kink Not? :D

The H.N.I.C.

Without a question we were on ten after being added to the bill! But because this was a last-minute decision, we ended up having to lug our own sound equipment to the spot. Good thing we got there extra early that nite because we had to jimmy-rig our whole sound system just so muff-occurs could hear us. But once all the fuckry was over of having to run all over downtown looking for extension cords and adapter plugs, the crowd started trickling in.







Dana introduced us to DJ Journey ((Chitown native gone La La)) and we soon found that it was actually a re-introduction. He remembered us from a previous band project...but so much time had passed since then, he was sleep on "Kinky Notti". But as soon as we described our new sound to him, he was totally down for the mission.



Kesh was first on the wons-&-toos while we pulled together a game plan with Journey and Dana. Then somebody said that we should put Kinky Notti on first to kick off DJ Journey's set,right before the fashion show...the rest is history. Mission complete!

The "live mannequins" were amazing! Tres Belle Vintage put their foot in it...((super-hip stylists/designers with a vintage line)). The Life Askew added their touches with a tight, ready-to-wear clothing line ((totally loving the new line, btw!))

The Tre Belle Crew

Two dudes from "The Life Askew" crew

For fashion we stand

So this was the real kicker-- just as things were warming up, Dana had to shut the music off and make an announcement. Turns out the police ordered the venue to shut down the party due to a suspension or some shit. The whole party was at a complete standstill. We were all standing around, mouths hanging open like "get the fuck outa here!" Luckily it all turned out to be a misunderstanding. So you know after that, muff-occurs were really ready to celebrate...Tshurhad Chivas grabbed the mic and yelled out "All ya'll who thought yall wasn't tryna dance before got a second chance now to get get yo ass out here on this dancefloor!" Somehow that whole situation made the party more on bone!

Don't faint Dana... the party's still jumping!

We only performed one song (Nasty Nasty) just as planned and plotted...just enough to hype the crowd before the crazy-80's fashion show began. The dance floor thickened up as we were taken to Hollywood...DJ Journey-style. KINK NOT?


Part II...Kesh's last nite in Chitown ended up at the "I Love Haters show" at Sub-T. This shoulda been a whole 'nother posting, but we don't really feel like creating a new one ((shit takes 4ever!!)) But anyway, this was a great nite becuase we got out to see some of our peeps rock the mic for a change. ((Crazy Hotness!!))

There were a ton of peeps on this bill, but we only saw Mic Terror,
Million Dollar Mano, Kid Static + Yea Big, Shala, and
Hollywood Holt ((his name need not be mentioned on the flyer because...

He got his own flyer, Bitches!

Dropping some a dat new hot shit

These catz literally worked it out on the mic!

HIIIIOOOOOOO!!!!!

The End…