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*****
