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Mar
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2010

Behind the Camera: Motion Family

By Mike Boyd - Guest Blog, Interviews

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Ashley Kershaw

Twitter: @AshCash1

Pill’s “Trap Goin Ham” has to be one of the realest videos to be shot in 2009. It was produced documentary-style and showed Pill living his life in the “A.” With write-ups in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and being named Complex’s #5 best Internet music video of the last decade, “Trap Goin Ham” has been influential in changing the face of hip hop music videos.

Motion Family has since become a household name in hip hop, especially with videos, photography, and design.

I interviewed David KA on what it’s like working with new artists like Yelawolf, and the importance of quality music videos in an age of camera tricks and music channel reality shows.

Who’s all in Motion Family, and how did u guys get started?

Our video and directorial team consists of Diwang Valdez, Sebastian “CBass” Urrea, and myself, David KA. Sebastian and I were roommates at Savannah College of Art and Design when we came up with the idea to start Motion Family. I was studying graphic/broadcast design, while ‘Bass was studying film, so we figured it’d be the perfect combination of our talents. We collaborated on our first videos back in like ‘04 for local Savannah artists. After college, our production slowed down a bit when Sebastian moved back to his hometown, Tampa FL, and I went back to Atlanta where I grew up.

I landed a job at Dapper Magazine (Grand Hustle’s brief music publication venture) via my boy from high school, Gavin Godfrey, a writer. At Dapper, I met Diwang who was doing photography/design work for BMF’s Juice Magazine before it went under. Diwang had also had an interest in shooting video, and when Dapper folded I convinced Sebastian to move up here to continue the Motion Family. Of course adding Diwang was a no-brainer.

We caught our first major look when we connected with our boy, Yancey Richardson, who hooked us up with a video for Yung Joc Ft. Gucci Mane and Yung Ralph called, “Posted at the Store.” Gavin later came on to our editorial team, writing video treatments and doing artist interviews. My childhood friend, Simon Cowart handles some web projects, and accounting stuff. That’s the crew.

Your videos are so clear, almost as if the viewer is standing on the block at the shoot. What do you think contributes to that look?

A lot of people ask, “What cameras do you use?” Ultimately it comes down to technology and knowing how to use it. We’ve always aimed to create a documentary-style production, which contributes to that “real life” feeling in our videos.

After seeing Pill’s “Trap Going Ham” and Yelawolf’s “Pop the Trunk,” I have to ask is it the content of the song that makes you write those treatments or the artist?

We collaborated with the artists to come up with the treatment for both of those videos. For the Pill video, he and his team (shouts to Derrick) told us they wanted to do a real genuine street video and referenced the Juvenile “Ha” video. Honestly, we didn’t really have a treatment for “Trap Going Ham,” we just knew that we were going to follow Pill to three different locations and just start rolling. That was easily probably one of the craziest shoots we have been on.

The Yelawolf video was a different story. When I first heard “Pop the Trunk,” I knew we had to shoot the video. We hit up ‘Wolf’s people and a week later we were in Gadsden, Alabama (his hometown) shooting the video. Off the bat we knew it would be a dark, haunting video and when we met them, they pretty much wanted to do a word-for-word visual for the track.

But to answer your question, I think it has to be good lyrical song, the artist has to be willing to give us 100% and let us shoot something different, and that’s really how we do it. It’s a good collaboration.

With MTV not playing many videos nowadays, how important do you think good quality videos are to the hip hop community?

Quality videos are what stick out these days. I think we have gotten so used to seeing either a big budget studio video on TV, or a hand-held homemade video online. That contributes to helping our higher quality video stick out. It’s different, almost like taking the footage back to its roots.

Visit Motion Family’s website.

Artists Tagged

Pill

Tyrone Rivers

Label: Asylum Records

Hometown: Atlanta, GA

Pill’s music is refreshing, as he paints a portrait of the streets in a very natural and real way, effectively shaming all the artists who pretend to be from his part of town. The XXL Magazine Freshman turned heads with his debut video for "Trap Goin' Ham," directed by Motion Family, as it graphically portrayed the poverty taking place in Pink City, five minutes away from a police precinct and seven minutes away from the state capital.

So far all of Pill's releases have been named after the various locations in which he grew up. 4180: The Prescription refers back to the Kimberly Court Projects on 4180 Cant Street and 4075: The Refill refers to the address of Pill’s aunt’s house. His next release, hosted by DJ Drama, should be a major turning point in his career as he's sure to be exposed to a wide fan base. Gangsta Grillz 1140: The Overdose is set to drop on June 1st.

Yelawolf

Michael Wayne Atha

Label: Ghet-O-Vision Ent., Interscope Records

Hometown: Gadsden, AL

Yelawolf's Trunk Muzik mixtape, hosted by DJ Burn One, catapulted the Alabama emcee into the emerging artist spotlight in early 2010. This project's buzz coupled with numerous co-signs (including Eminem) helped to land Yela a record deal at Interscope.

Described by Mike Bigga as a mix between Outkast and Lynyrd Skynyrd, Yelawolf’s style is thoroughly southern. The southern drawl adds to Yela's unique sound which often meshes hip hop with classic rock. Other unique aspects of Yelawolf's persona are his love of skateboarding and appreciation for classic rock, which help him stand out amidst a sea of emerging hip hop artists.

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