Chris Webby “Certified” Music Video from John Ta on Vimeo.

This is my first music vid for up and coming rapper Chris Webby.

Chris Webby is part of a larger movement of “white boy rappers” coming up alongside Asher Roth, Sam Adams, Mac Miller, (sorry if I left anybody out) etc… in the post-Eminem era. (My boys, Junk Science, who are also white, are in their own category of hip hop – esoteric (Baje One!), beat-centric (DJ Snafu!), experimental hip hop)

Technically speaking, we are not in a “post-Eminem” era since Eminem is still around and still very relevant. The era we are moving into is one where all these suburban, private-school trained, middle class kids who grew up listening to hip hop in general, but Eminem specifically, see hip hop as a viable and acceptable form of self expression (thank you Eminem). It was through Eminem that the first breakthrough white boy rapper was accepted by the hip hop community on the whole. I saw some blogs calling it “frat rap.” There are even some blogs specifically geared towards this genre of hip hop (The Masked Gorilla).

But what music is teaching us and Webby is reminding us, is that, it’s not necessarily where you are from (The Ghetto) , but what you are dealing with that makes the music matter.

At any rate, much like how Webby enlightens us in this interview – it doesn’t matter if you’re white, black, or green, “if you’re nice, you’re nice,” and that’s all that matters.

The focus is on the MC’ing and in that category Webby is an important musician who is definitely “nice” and, much like Eminem, is going to sneak up on you with his healthy dose of self-deprecating humor and strong lyricism…

UPDATE:

Okay, so a friend of mine said I was being unfair in not giving credit to Snow, Vanilla Ice, and Beastie Boys, not to mention House of Pain/Everlast and 3rd Bass. But what sets Eminem apart from all of them is that he was fully accepted by the hip hop community, MTV, and the mainstream community as a whole – but especially MTV. So without discounting what others brought, you have to single out Eminem as someone who trail-blazed his own genre, his own category, his own history that paved the way for this new movement forefronted by Chris Webby.

Chris Webby’s “Certified” Video around the net:

Tweetmeme

Band Aidz

Fresh 2 Death Daily

Hip Hop Ain’t Dead

The Masked Gorilla

Sound in The Signals

84area

Nue Agency

The Mad Bloggers

Too Sick Muzik

Jeremy Fairley / Audrey Wagner Wedding Video – “We’re Going To Be Friends” – White Stripes cover performed by Acoustic Carpet from John Ta on Vimeo.

Going to my good friend’s wedding in Hawaii on the North Shore and capturing all the splendorousness of it all.

Erick Arc Elliott – Unedited Freestyle from John Ta on Vimeo.

Music Vid coming soon.

Chris Webby – Unedited Freestyle from John Ta on Vimeo.

via The Oatmeal.

Junk Science “Really, Man” Music Video from John Ta on Vimeo.

This may be my proudest moment as a Music Video Director up to this point in my career.

I had this convoluted idea for a Music Video while walking around The Dakota about a re-interpretation of the John Lennon Assassination. Whether you know this or not, The Dakota is a very famous building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan at 72nd Central Park West. It is primarily famous for two things :

1. the location where Roman Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby” was filmed and ;

2. where John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived (Yoko is still there) and where John Lennon was assassinated by Mark David Chapman.

For me, this video and song has so many meanings.

Please don’t read any further until you have seen the video for yourself in order to not cloud your own valid interpretations – but, for me, some of the themes in this video include, but are not limited to

… forgiving the past, or reinterpreting the past, being okay with exactly who you are and who you are not, living with No in your life, being a go-getter, living powerfully, living inside of great possibility, a whole lot of transformational thinking/living, healing, … etc…

If you listen to the song, the song is about someone who grew up a certain way thinking they know everything but realizing they know nothing. That is like life – the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know.

What if Mark David Chapman, who by my estimation, had a lot of drive, will, and ambition – it just happened to be grossly misdirected – decided to do something positive with it instead???

I took this crazy-ass idea to the Junk Science crew and not only did they like it, they completely embellished on top of it and the idea took a life of its own and the creative juices were flowing thereafter. At some point a short film version that is a little longer than the video will be published.

Take a look.

THIS VIDEO IS FEATURED ON ABOUT 125 BLOGS (ACCORDING TO VIMEO STATS), BUT HERE ARE THE ONES GETTING THE MOST PLAYVIEWS:

I will periodically update this page.

Cool Hunting.com summer mixtape.

COMPLEX MAGAZINE

UGS MAGAZINE

SHABOOTY

DRUGOYHIPHOP (RUSSIAN WEBSITE)

Flawless Hustle

Potholes in My Blog

Scumlife

Hyphtek.net

Hip Hop DX

modern shark

The 5 Minute Interview : Children of Nova (Part 2 of 2) from John Ta on Vimeo.

The 5 Minute Interview : Children of Nova (part 1 of 2) from John Ta on Vimeo.