Chris Robinson Part 1

Chris Robinson describes being a film and Hip Hop-obsessed teen from Baltimore and making his way into the industry. He remembers getting life-changing advice from LL Cool J (instead of a battle), linking with some of Brooklyn's most hardcore MCs, and now pivoting to help tell Lebron James' story. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Ladies and gentlemen.
Guess what time it is? That's right, your favorite podcast,
the award winning Quest Love Supreme. I got it right. Fine,
we are the award winning or what s Supreme? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Here we're Teine Supreme Quest Love. You know what time
it is? Tigolo?

Speaker 1 (00:26):
What's up? Brother?

Speaker 3 (00:27):
What's up? Man?

Speaker 1 (00:28):
What's happening?

Speaker 3 (00:28):
What's happening?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
We're in the daytime. When's the last time we did
the daytime?

Speaker 4 (00:31):
John?

Speaker 1 (00:32):
It's been a minute.

Speaker 5 (00:33):
It's been a good minute.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
I just woke up. Yeah, like he hits a little
different than the daylight.

Speaker 6 (00:37):
Oh you like that a good thing?

Speaker 3 (00:40):
I don't know?

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Isot that was?

Speaker 6 (00:45):
Get back from the other night?

Speaker 1 (00:47):
No? No, look like yo, can we talk about that night?

Speaker 6 (00:52):
Can we really quick? Guess? I would really like to
talk about that night?

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Which night?

Speaker 6 (00:56):
So, Amir had an experience? Would you like to tell
everybody about your experience?

Speaker 1 (01:00):
You know it's random?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
I mean, you know, uh, you know, I was in
I was in La you know, I'm Philly. I'm Philly
to the boom and just happened to have a night
off when Miss Jill Scott finally got around to after,
you know, a pandemic, a false pandemic start, you know,
celebrating the one year anniversary of her landmark. Who is

(01:23):
Jill Scott Tore did it from beginning to end? It
was just that from outside eyes, I could see how
random and weird and motley that crew looked walking in.

Speaker 6 (01:37):
You were sitting with the crew that you walked in with.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, well, you know, I'm Philly, Me, Me and Quinta
are really really good friends.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
You know, allegedly we don't know according to this podcast
because all your friends. Well no, your friends don't come
on this podcast. She is a good friend, yes.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Right, she's notoriously shy.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
But I'll say the random party, No, I was just
I was hanging with my crew and Quinna having to
roll with us and just out of nowhere and layah, correctly,
you're you're very correct, and thank you for your pre warning.
You know, there's there's some people who's you know, like

(02:17):
James Brown. Won't let you call him James or James Brown.
You have to call mister James Brown. H We already
have our own. We we have Miss Lauren Hill. Yes,
so just randomly at the last minute, my boy Silvert,
who is Jill's tour manager and sometimes roots tour manager,
said hey, you know, I got to stick somebody in

(02:39):
your section. I came back and basically it was Lisa Ray.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Oh.

Speaker 6 (02:45):
I had to let him know.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
Basically, Amir didn't know that Lisa Ray is always Lisa Ray.
She's never Lisa. So when Amira said that she was
going to be showing up, I said, well, you just
make sure you don't never slip and call her Lisa.
Her name is Lisa Ray, right.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
And so I warned everybody that we are to addresser
as Lisa Ray and not hey Lisa or whatever. And
you know, by then our treats had already kicked in,
so it was really hard explaining that to people. So
I think we overdid it. In every three seconds we
were just like, hey, Lisa Ray, would you like someone,
Hey Lisa Ray, would you like a blanket?

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Lisa Ray? Can you see Lisa Ray? Like literally, I
would also like.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
The world to know that this was quest Laf's first
time sitting in the audience of the Hollywood Bowl at
the blackest Hollywood Bowl event probably of the year, one
of the blackest ones outside.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Of jut I've never sat in the audience before at
the Hollywood Bowl.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
I didn't know that you could bring your own food. No,
it was for those that are.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Regular Hollywood Bowl attendees, like, it was nothing like I.
You know, I didn't know that you were supposed to
bring your own bottle and whatever. So let's just say
a lot. Laya was getting a kick out of watching.

Speaker 4 (03:50):
Me, watching you go to the stand by you a blanket,
do all the things you ain't bring your own.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Blanke a civilian, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed being a
civilian anyway, unpaid Bill, what's up, bro?

Speaker 7 (04:02):
I don't know, man, I feel like my day is
all fucking weird because we're doing it in the middle
of the day and I don't know, I'm great though.
I just feel like this usually ends the day. Now
is the beginning of the day.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Usually, So you want a day drink?

Speaker 7 (04:15):
No, not today, all right, sugar Steve?

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Hey, everybody, do I hit differently in the daytime as well? Quest?

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Yes, we can see your face now. You normally have
the darkest room out of all.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Of us, so you know, no, we're good.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, anyway, all right, so this episode definitely long time coming.
I will say that our guest, along with his brother Rich,
is a founding member of the rock group The Black Crows.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
About that let me rewind, Let me rewind.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
No, Actually, for the last thirty seven years are our
guest today has been beloved patriarch Jack Hamilton on The
Ball and the Beautiful and also the voice of and
also the voice of Vicks Formula forty four for the
last forty seven years.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
No, no, no, no, let me try this one more time.

Speaker 6 (05:15):
How many are there?

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yoh wait?

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Look, first of all, I will say on video directing
credits alone, I know that we've elevated to movies and
to production and whatnot, but I will probably say that
I think that our guest today that his canon of
music videos has really, in my opinion, saved and somewhat

(05:41):
defined the best moments of be et and MTV. I
mean literally, like, dude, I didn't even know that you
directed the Dodoo Brown video.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Oh yeah, can we just start there? Can we start like.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Brothers than a which, But our our introduction to Alicia
Keys came through his lens, you know, dude, like a Marie.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
Like we can go on just literally Alicia Keys.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
A Marie uh directed uh name it while for the
Night Lord Lord all the miracles that he's done with outcasts,
we can't even go there. But dude, my favorite Brandy
videos full mood. I didn't know that you did that.
I know what you want. How did you handle the
entire Flip Mode squad? I want to see the entire treatment.

(06:34):
I just want to know how from one to ten.
What was the headache level of advil you had to
take for that entire Buster Mariah Flip Mode video experience.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
And by the way that you're staring.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
At me, I can tell that that day was very
heady for you. But no, literally, you've directed some of
these crazy innovative videos. Dude, so anxious. Also, I'm just saying,
just name it, like from Jay He's literally directed. If

(07:06):
we named his entire cannon, the episode would be over
by No, yes.

Speaker 5 (07:11):
This whole episode just on the New Edition story, just alone.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
Just that.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
But yeah, I'm about to say between a New Edition
story between.

Speaker 6 (07:19):
Star shooting stars. Yeah, man, you've.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
Done various Wu Tang saga like you you are. I
feel like he.

Speaker 6 (07:27):
Did Mama, I made it.

Speaker 4 (07:30):
Bonn was on our show too, Like it's just all
of the things.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
It's and that's the episode. So thank you very much
Chris for joining us.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Now Pladion John and Chris Robinson is joining the are
Chris Robinson. Yeah, I gotta admit there was a slight
who's on first situation when La Brittany and cousin Jake
brought you up. It's like, yo, Chris Robinson wants to

(07:57):
do the show. And I was like, oh, okay, so
I went to a Bruce Springsteen concert.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
You already know where this shit's going.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
I went to a Bruce Springsteen concert like a month
and a half ago, and I saw Black Crows Chris
Robinson and kind of had a who's on first conversation
the elevator. I was like, yeah, so I hear you're
about to do the show with us, And I think
he thought I was talking about the tonight show, right,
So just cut to like just ten minutes of going

(08:28):
in circle before I realized, yeah, I don't think he's
coming on Quest Love Supreme.

Speaker 4 (08:33):
So Chris Robin, oh that shit, I got it, okay
right right?

Speaker 3 (08:37):
You know I got a story with him.

Speaker 6 (08:39):
You got a story with Chris Robinson.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
Chris Robinson Atlanta, Georgia at the Four Seasons in the lobby.
Somebody's calling for Chris Robinson. I show up and he
shows up. It should have been like a Dave Chappelle's skit.
And then he goes, He goes, do you know everybody
thinks I'm a video director? And I said, do you
know everybody thinks that I play rock and roll? We
had a conversation.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
All it takes is you got to direct a Black
Crose video and then the circles complete.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
Let's set that up.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
You know what, yo, not knowing your everyday life is
but one of the strangest nights in rock star kind
of existence I've ever had. You were a part of it.
I don't even know if you remember it. Do you
remember the night that I came to Atlanta? I don't
even think you took me. I think you just happened

(09:34):
to be there and you became like my you know,
like whoever whoever the your your your guide is on
the first day of kindergarten, or whoever your guide is
on your first day in prison, it's almost the same
thing equivalent.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
I went to.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
It wasn't what's Atlanta's most popular gentleman's uh, it wasn't
a magic city.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
It was a Magic City though.

Speaker 6 (10:01):
It was nis a gentleman's club, it was.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
It was someone on that level.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
But I remember, I remember, yeah, I forgot where we were.
We were somewhere that was like legitimately, if you are
from Atlanta, you freak with this spot.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Right, Someone told me, like, you know, to go to
Magic City is almost like some tourist shit, like, right,
don't go to Magic City and you're only going to
go to what's what's the uh, the one that's that
has the letter C in it. That's my lounge, yeah,
or Claremont Clairemont for novelty purposes.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Only, right, Oh, I never heard of it.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
But the actual natives and locals go to the spot
that I went to, I forget the name of it.
And I've never seen like I thought, I've you know,
like we'll go to the spot in Vegas or something
like that. I've never seen no shit like this in
my life. Where twenty minutes into the experience, I realized

(10:59):
that the whole purpose of that of that establishment wasn't
It wasn't even the women like they just happened to
be there dancing.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
It was about breakfast. No, it's about to find the
laws of gravity.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
And how much muscle power do you have to grab
a stack, throw it up in the air and keep
it up in the air.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
Before the last dollar drops.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
And I believe that they had like a counter on
the wall, like people breaking records, like who who can
make it rain their dollars in the air the longest?
And I've never seen a spot with its own banking
system like so a very much well loved ball player

(11:45):
that's near and dear to my hometown, I will say
at that point he was a young startup in the
atl They were basically having a who's dick is bigger
contest on whose dollars could stay up in the air
more and literally, like at one point said ballplayer threw

(12:06):
up maybe twenty thousand. And this is when I was
my afro was out and I was rocking a that
was in my uh what do you call it?

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Freedom fighter for slaves? Not that turner, that Frederick Douglas, Yes,
Frederick Douglas.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
I was about to say, Frede run Barry, I'm sorry,
okay yo. And I remember two hundred dollars had landed
in the part of my afro, and naturally I was
just going to grab the ship and Chris like, don't
do that, They'll come and get it. And I was like,
huh And literally I was about to do that and

(12:43):
security is like no, like I couldn't. You couldn't touch
the money. I've never seen no shit like that in
my life.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Is that night just indicative of what the strip club
experience is because we weren't even like at the tables,
we were just by the bar chilling watching it.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
You know what, brother? That is? Uh, when the money
goes up, you can't touch it on its way down
because that's it. Like I've seen situations where guys have
reached for the money on the floor and it ain't good.
So you know, I could not have my brother reaching
for any.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
You saved my life And literally I just wanted to
take it out my hair to give it to like who.

Speaker 6 (13:25):
But you can't do that because you ain't throw it.

Speaker 4 (13:27):
So you can't act like you're giving it to somebody
because somebody else do it.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
Not that.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
I just it was on my person, you know, there
it is. It wasn't possession was nine tenths of the law,
you know or whatever.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
I don't know. Very surreal. Are you still in Atlanta
right now?

Speaker 3 (13:41):
As we speak, I am not I'm in Los Angeles.
You know what's funny. People think I'm from Atlanta, but
I'm actually from Maryland. I do.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
I thought you were from Atlanta.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
Yeah, and I live in LA now, so I still
go back and forth to Maryland. But I think I
just did so many videos and I did ata. How
the people think that I'm from Atlanta. I love Atlanta.
Shout out Atlanta.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
All there, there you go.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
So normally, you know, we have mostly musicians on the show.
But for you, what's your beginning step to becoming a lenement?

Speaker 3 (14:16):
Like?

Speaker 1 (14:17):
How does this? How does this happen?

Speaker 3 (14:20):
Well? Like like many other people, and when you're young.
In the beginning, I just knew I was going to
be in the NFL, like you know. Then I realized
when I went to college that I was slow and
short and weak to be in the NFL. One nose
guard Yeah, oh really? Oh well you for real your

(14:45):
careal now play.

Speaker 5 (14:46):
Some nose enough in high school too, that was I
love those man, it was in the trenches. I loved it.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
I'm gonna pretend I know what the NewsGuard is.

Speaker 6 (14:55):
I don't think I know what that means.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
I saw I saw his face and I'm like, yeah,
it's safe to ask this question. What do you think
a those guard? Yeah, you want to pine in the
face moment this early in the day, Bill, Now I'm good.
Moving on.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Nose guard. Are you in the center? Is that a
defensive position? Is that an offensive position?

Speaker 1 (15:14):
Guard is offensive?

Speaker 5 (15:15):
Is a defensive position. So the center is the one
that snaps the ball to the quarterback. That's the offensive position.
The nose guard is like generally right in front of
the center, Like you're right in the middle, you know
what I mean. On the defense. So you're trying to
penetrate the old line get to the QB.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
You know what that means, Like, yeah.

Speaker 6 (15:31):
You penetrate the offensive line to get to the quarterback.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
Came man, Yeah, come on.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
And basically, if you just plug up the hole, which
means you know, three dudes you know, hit you in
the back and the ribs and the chest, then you
did you did your job. Just just clog it up,
you know, running backs and got up clag it up.
But so you know, that went quick. But in that

(15:57):
but when I went to college, I discovered making. I
went to you know, just took film one oh one
and it I was like, this is interesting, and then
I read Spike Lee's book, She's Got to Have It,
and it was like he wrote this specifically to me
and blew my mind. And then at that point, you know,

(16:19):
I was off and running.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
So what were your what were your first steps into
that world? Like are you most filmmakers I know that
either went to n YU or that sort of thing, Like,
what was your first steps into it?

Speaker 3 (16:32):
No, it was more it was more you know, independent
figuring it out. You know. I went to school in Cali,
went back home, took all kinds of odd jobs. But
I used to put flyers in the record store. Need
a video, call me fly yeah, man, all every now
Here's here's the tough part because you know, you from Philly,

(16:54):
you know, like it was so much like club music
in Baltimore versus hip hop. Right, So it was hip
hop artists were few and far between, but the hip
hop artists that were there, everybody went through this one
record store and so I got a couple joints. You know,
I was learning about getting ten thousand dollars in a

(17:17):
brown paper bag, you know, from some cats doing their
video and Frank Ski you mentioned earlier, Dude, Brown Brown
was a DJ, and then they got in touch with
me and we did two different Dodo Browns. One of
the dude his boy Stanley Evans. He lived close to me,

(17:38):
so he was at a rival high school back in
the day. So and you know Frank was, he was.
He was the guy in boutour like he ran everything.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
So were the radio personalities, Yes, Frank was. Yeah, Frank
Ski ever come to Philly.

Speaker 4 (17:55):
Frank went to Atlanta. Remember Frank went to Atlanta and
was in Atlanta for like twenty years and then he
came back.

Speaker 6 (18:00):
Now he's in DC.

Speaker 4 (18:01):
So that's probably why you confused, because when you were
in visiting Atlanta you may hear him.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
Okay, I know, I know that voice like the early Odds. Okay, cool.

Speaker 4 (18:09):
But question because you mentioned Baltimore. That means like you
came up in a time of Frank Ski and like
miss Tony right, like can you can you talk about that?
Because come on, people don't talk about Baltimore.

Speaker 6 (18:19):
Come on please, So since.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
The beginning of what we call Baltimore House, yeah okay.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
Yeah, I mean listen, it was always around because I know,
I'll tell you I'm from Baltimore. But every Friday night,
they you turn on the radio when it was just
house and I hated it, you know, so I would
go over to Morgan State's station because they would play
hip hop late at night. So being at home doing
those videos, meeting Frank doing Dude Brown. And then there

(18:48):
was a contest. This is gonna blow your mind. There
was a contest on a show called Pump It Up. Yeah. Yes,
So the contest was to remake ll Cool Jay's Booming System.
I got my brother, we borrowed somebody's jeep, I got

(19:09):
all my cousins, I got some friends and we shot
it in back of Morgan State. And you know, it
was syndicated show, so it was national. So we send
it in a VHS tape and we won, and it
was crazy. We were like what excuse me? We won?
So the prize was you get to go to New York.

(19:33):
It was when Mama said, knock you out, came out.
You got to go to New York and have dinner
with LLL and his grandmother and his and all the executives.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
At depth, Jaim, you know what I'm saying. So it
was it was dope.

Speaker 6 (19:51):
Tell us about it because then what.

Speaker 3 (19:54):
Well, yes it did, because it's it's some of the
best advice I ever got in the busines. So there,
oh no, but I met Paris Barkley later. Okay, right,
so I'm set well l and we are nineteen twenty maybe,

(20:15):
and so I'm going, yo, son, I'm gonna rhyme against hell.
LL have the camera red. I got to tell you,
I always also thought I was gonna be a rapper, like,
oh boy, you know what I'm saying. These are over
young boy aspirations. You know, every single thing you can

(20:38):
do in the hood, from a barber to a NFL
to rap ended up in film. But so we have
a beautiful dinner. Man, I get to meet his mom,
ll the whole thing, and you know, at one point
I give my boy the camera and I go, okay, yo, man,
let's battle, and he elder kind of smiles. It's a

(21:02):
slight chuckle and he goes, listen, brother, you're very talented.
What you should do is get the number of every
one of these people here, because you know, there were
interns and assistants and people who would like they at
Deaf Jam who were who were given the job to

(21:22):
deal with this contest. And this, you know, crazy kid
from Baltimore, and he said, because you need to have
your industry contacts, so he wouldn't rob against me, Thank god,
because then that that would be somewhere out of the
universe about now. But all those people I was with
turned into presidents and executives of the highest level, and

(21:44):
I work with them my whole career. Told you, yeah, man.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
Damn see Tomorrow's intern is is the future president?

Speaker 1 (21:55):
Was he always that presidential? Yes?

Speaker 3 (22:00):
He Listen, man, he has always been. He's you know,
like there's a there's a there's a fabric that is
for the camera and then there's something behind it. He's
always been the same from me. I've been on one
hundred and twenty fifth Street and he rolls up in
a Bentley and rolls down the window and goes, hey, Chris,
how you doing and pulls off, and it's like.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Wow, commercial exactly.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
Like he's super solid. I worked with him on a
project during COVID where we did these performances like in
the in the in the most storied places because it
was COVID, right, and we did the Trooper Door with
him and just you know, connecting with him and having

(22:47):
the pre pro calls. It's it's straight business, but it's
love and he keeps it moving. He's a bad dude.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
You know, I assume that by this time, Lionel Martin
is the gatekeeper. So in your eyes, is it like
I gotta get to Lionel C.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
Martin level? Like I gotta he's the guy.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Like I know that Hype Williams High Williams told me
that he used to sweep the floorist with Lionel Martin,
and I know that, uh Paul Hunter did the same
thing for Hype.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
So it's almost like a.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
A thing like, so, did you have to be an
apprentice for an established video director before you were truly
allowed to run your own thing or you just came
in the door as a video director.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
As I was going through this process, I also like
worked in the promo department at Fox forty five News
in Baltimore, and any movie that came through, I was
a pa on media man. Robert Oh okay, wow, yeah, yeah, yes,
you learned. Yeah this is what I learned. This might

(24:01):
not sound good for the kids. I was like, I
was like a ham No, I'm directed, like I'm young,
super young, but I go it's I'll put it to
you this day after working there for weeks. You know,
as a PA, most of the time you're not able
to go on the set. You're not able to participate.

(24:24):
You're doing the dirty work, you know. Same And I
put my son through the same torture.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
So for our listeners out there, what does that entail?

Speaker 3 (24:32):
It is picking up trash, it's cleaning out toilets and
win a bay go, it's going to get coffee. It's
if an artist needs medicine or medicine, you go get
it and whatever. Running never do it. You're the runner.
So one night we were working overnight, so call time
was five pm and we'd work until seven am. We're

(24:55):
in Baltimore, humid to one hundred some degrees as the
sun starts to come up, and there was a scene
where all the neighbors on each side of the block
threw things out the window with medium men. And so
the AD came to us, our PA group, and said, okay,
you see each square on the sidewalk. I want you

(25:16):
to go to that square, take a photograph and then
a polaroid. Then I want you to take a box
and put each thing in that box. So when we
picked this up later tonight. We can place everything in
the exact as we looked at that three block radius

(25:37):
and everybody said, okay, well, we're gonna be here another
five hours. After working for twelve hours, I was like,
this shall be my last day as a PA, and
I'm gonna tell and I'm gonna tough it out. So
that day I left the set, I was like, I
don't even care if you pay me, I'm out. And
I dipped And I told Robert this story. I saw

(25:57):
him recently and as the first time he knew that
I worked as a PA on his on this thing.
But I think what it did is that it really
motivated me, man Like it had me going to New
York on the m track with fifteen dollars in my pocket,
going to set in the lobby. I just wanted anybody
to have my demo tape, you know, which wasn't that

(26:17):
good to take you down down that I know, but
I would bug I bugged somebody, you know. Fred Felman
was a guy profiled, but I called him every day,
so he was the only guy in the office. Because
I met him later and he was telling me about it.
He goes Yo used to call me every day, but
nobody was in the office. We had like went bankrupt
or something, but we had a They were kind of

(26:39):
going from the run DMC era to this new era
and in these new artists. So finally he hit me
up and said, yo, I got an artist and Smoothed
the Hustler.

Speaker 5 (26:51):
And so you did Smooth the Hustler, the Broken Language
that I did.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
Yeah, before that, I did Smooth's joint. It was just him.
Then his brother trick him and Trigger got and they
did Broken Language. But I ended up doing like four
or five joints for them. They would come to Maryland,
we would have a barbecue, we would like make posters
and like have our own release parties. It just was

(27:15):
it was never about the money because because you know,
my idea of success was if I could get a
pair of times, I was good, you know, after doing
the video.

Speaker 6 (27:25):
From Baltimore, you know Baltimore.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
They weren't black Black Air Force ones though they was,
buterton I would get. If I could get tims, that
was it. And that's that's how the love part, you know,
of doing it began.

Speaker 4 (27:40):
How did you back then when you first started, what
was your method for creating, Like did you have to
get with the artists first, or did you just present
the artists with your idea, like I guess what's move.

Speaker 3 (27:50):
Oh yeah, we you know, I'd go up meet them.
You know what's funny is is I think back I
was so naive that I just thought everybody was friends,
everybody was cool, Like it was just somebody you would
meet and I would go up and I'd go straight
to the heart of Brooklyn and I was meeting M O.
P and dr. Period, and I was meeting all these

(28:10):
dudes who were still in the street and I'd be
sitting on their stuked. Okay, guys, so here's the treat
I would break out the break out the treatment and
just kind of you know. So there was some storyboards
connected to it, and I think, you know, they were like, yo,
this kid is serious. So there was a certain trust
that we that we got and I you know, we

(28:31):
would always just try to shoot everything. But back then
it was like, you know, their mother would cook for
us when we were in Brooklyn shooting, and we would
go to Carolina Kitchen around the corner over there in Brooklyn,
and it was just that was the start. And I
think it's funny because just along with technology and how
things changed. This word would spread. Then I'd get a

(28:53):
call from this artist. Then I would get a call
from Fat Joe, and then that relationship started. That turned
into then I get a call from Fuck, Then I
get a call from Jay. It was very much a
smaller community, and you would it wasn't a phone call
or zoom. You went up to the office and you

(29:13):
sat there and you had the conversation before you really
did any work. So there was a certain you know,
you had to be vetted by the person.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
All right, let me ask a question as a person
who especially in the prime of their career, you know,
I'm the person that would micro manage album credits, the
engineering of a song, the photographer for like the art
direction of our album call.

Speaker 1 (29:41):
But I hated.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
The process of video making, even with the whole what
they do situation, Like I literally had no clue that
we were referencing one more chance, because that's how indifferent
I was, Like I was now happened we were. I
was snapping in the trailer, like I only came when
it was my time to do a scene.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
And even when we watched watch.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
The credits or whatever, I don't know I just felt
like maybe it was the deprecation thing, like I, we're
so motley looking, like this ain't getting on television.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
So it's almost like.

Speaker 4 (30:19):
You weren't thinking as a director back then, and even
though you tell these many stories.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
Yeah, it's the It's the equivalent of like a kid
with a bad report card that waits till like six
in the morning and ask their parents to sign the shit,
like mom, dad, haaven's real quick, or this permission slip
like when you're asleep at six in the morning.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
That sort of thing. That's so for me. What I
what I learned though, what I learned was.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
I think especially when record labels, you know, there's certain
artists that will get an unlimited budget. You know they
have a little wigger room for creativity. But how do
you deal with an artist that has high expectation for
their video but not the video budget.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
You know what I think? I was so close, you
know when we were there, it is like I was like, yeah,
let's go, Like I never said no to anything. Now.
My producer was you know, having a stuff.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
Produces the bad guy. Who's your producer.

Speaker 3 (31:22):
My producer for the last twenty years has been Roseanne
cunning in. You know, as soon as we opened robot,
like we've been we stuck together this whole time.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
That's dope. So she was the bad cop to your
good cop.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
Yeah she was. She wasn't only the bad cop cop
to the label. She'd be the bad cop to me.
You know. She'd be like, Chris, we're shutting these lights off.
And you know, back then, you know, which is a
youthful mistake. I'd go, well, take part of my fee.
I was always throwing my fee in for extra lights

(31:54):
or an extra an hour, just because you know, she
was trying to make sure I didn't bankrupt our company,
you know, because that's that's you just you just wanted
it to be because I always you know, I always
say like it's funny because back then we were all
fighting for like maybe one hundred slots in the country. Right.

(32:15):
There was TRL but that didn't play a lot of
hip hop. There was one oh six in Park and
then you know, of course Ralph McDaniel's and and but
there wasn't you know where where there's where there's a
million slots every hour now because you go to YouTube,
there was a certain amount. So when hip hop got serious,

(32:38):
it became a business that was generating money. You know,
those big budgets were a reaction to let's win the slot.
You know, how does this competition? Hype Williams is doing this?
Like how do we get there? Like how do we
how do we create? And there was a lot of
creativity put into it, and so me, I would always go, yes,

(32:59):
let's let's try to achieve beyond what the number is.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
You know, so you would aim high for a lower
budget instead of like aiming for good lower, you would
just aim higher.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
Anyway, I didn't even know what aiming good lower was.
I mean, just to be real, now I do. Now
I know what makes sense as a filmmaker to go, Okay,
let's do this really well because we have this amount
of money in this amount of resources, or let's change
our idea. Like once that treatment was written and they
chose it, I really kind of took it on myself

(33:32):
to like, we got to make it work.

Speaker 4 (33:34):
You know.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
I also came from a world where you know, at
Geffen Records, they would always throw on my face, hey man,
we shot smells like teen Spirit for ninety thousand dollars,
like a gymnasium of two cameras. So yeah, they would
always say to me like it's in the song, it's
in the spirit of the performance. It's not you know,

(33:56):
we don't need this car or this mansion or I
mean not like we want in the car mansion. But
you know, I at least like my thing was, I
would always fight for like Spikes Jones, like because I
want to just do crazy, off kilter things right, and
you know, we were just always always under budget. So

(34:17):
I mean, after dude, Brown, what do you feel like
your first video was that really established you? As in, like,
all right, flag planning. There's a new sheriff in town.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
His name is Chris Robinson, I would say, Peter Gunns
and Lord tie uptown.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
All right, So how did you pull off that Yankee shot?

Speaker 3 (34:37):
This is the first time I'm telling this story.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
Yeah, of course we.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
Want to be uptown. We want to be in Yankee Stadium,
and this is the beauty of that era. And we
and music videos, my producers got all the way up
to George Steinbrent right like we were we were coming
bringing hip hop Yankee Stadium. And at the end of

(35:03):
the day he said no, and we were devastated. And
then me this may be sacrilegious for all of New
York people, don't say Mets. We went to the Mets stadium,
we went to Queens and and I was like, how

(35:23):
do we make this look like Yankee Stadium? And we
did our best. But see, you didn't know, but I'm telling,
I'm telling you said, how did you do the Yankee shot?

Speaker 6 (35:33):
And why did y'all think it was the Yankees? Then
how did y'all think it was? Because I'm sitting here looking.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Like uptown man, like I just assumed, okay, but they
were also wearing.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
Like Yankee shit? How did you pull that off?

Speaker 3 (35:45):
Exactly? That's that was that's the director has to go,
how do you draw the eye? Everybody had on Yankee jackets,
but then you also had everybody from the Bronx, pun Joe,
all these cats were in the audio we did. We
had like instead of them having beer and hot dogs,
there was like champagne bottles that the guy walking around with.

(36:07):
And we got to get on the field, we got
to see the you know, the scoreboard and how.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
Did you Yeah, how did you look that up?

Speaker 3 (36:13):
Though? So that listen we went on. That's that's how
serious it became. Like we would we would move like
a feature film.

Speaker 6 (36:22):
But did the mets know what you were doing directly?

Speaker 3 (36:26):
I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
I don't think it's very much stadium though.

Speaker 7 (36:31):
Man, now that I know that's what it's like, that
is so different.

Speaker 3 (36:36):
Yeah, exactly. But that was a beautiful day.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
I also know that as a director, second nature for
you has to be Jedi mind tricking. And I know again,
like your producer has to be the bad guy or
the shield.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
You know, your producer has to know if you're.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
Singing with a a a certain chantu, is a certain
singer that there might be three hundred seconds in her minute,
you know, So you might have to tell people like, okay,
this the shoots at four o'clock and then they show
up at nine o'clock or whatever, which is what you

(37:18):
wanted them to do in the first place, or whatever.
But like, how do you how do you immediately know
that you're dealing with like that level of uh, Jedi
mind tricking with your artists.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
You can only Jedi mind trick so much, right, And
that's that's in your schedule, right, But it's planned b
that's the most important part, right, Like when you set
your day up, be prepared to shoot all the other
stuff you need in case somebody comes six hours late

(37:52):
and six hours.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
Late, so you do your b shots first.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
Oh yeah, oh yeah?

Speaker 2 (37:58):
Is that is that general for you? Or is that
is that video making one on one?

Speaker 3 (38:02):
I think it's I think it's a learned behavior, you
know what I'm saying. Like you know, I started off
like you know, once you set everything up and you
set the first shot, and you set the lights and
we were sitting there waiting, sitting on apple boxes, you
just learn because the artist eventually shows up. It's their money,
it's their music video. But you may not get your

(38:24):
whole creative off like you wanted it. The video might
not be as dope as you want it to be.
So you figure out ways just to get the video
to your vision. And you know, when you get repeat business,
you know you would learn like, oh, Nor's gonna be
three hours late. You know, there was a there was

(38:44):
a tweaking of like some people were twenty minutes late,
some people were early, and you better show up and
be there on time. And so once you kind of
got that repeat business, you kind of understand who did what.

Speaker 6 (38:56):
Did you have?

Speaker 4 (38:57):
We talked about you reading the Spike Lee book. But like,
did you have a mentor in this game? And along
with that question, what other influences are a part of
your work that we may not know When it comes
to direction.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
No, no mentor, no real mentor.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
It was you are the roots of directing.

Speaker 3 (39:17):
No, there you go, you walk like okay, this, yeah,
that's that's kind of what it was. And because of
all of the times in Baltimore, nothing scared me, right,
you know, because I was already dealing with all of
these guys who's who how can you say it? The
stakes were very high, right, you had to get this

(39:40):
this right. So I was like in a playground. Man.
I just was like going and I was like, oh
my god, they're gonna let me do this. And then
you take the next step, Oh we got another phone call.
I think I will quit my job, and you know,
it just it just builds from there. But yeah, no,
no real mentor, And that scene I was looking for

(40:00):
that early, you know, along with you know, doing Judie
Ground and all that. Like there'd be movies that came
through Baltimore or TV shows and you nobody when you're
in that zone of the PA, nobody really has time
for you, right, and most of them aren't, you know,
aren't like your people. So that's what happened in the

(40:22):
video is I was embraced by people like me who
just happened to be the big star or the big executive.
Kevin Lowles is from Baltimore.

Speaker 4 (40:32):
Yeah, I about to ask you, so, did you guys
know each other early on when he was.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
I know, I knew Kevin Lyles. I knew of Kevin Lyles.
He was like a legend because he had a song
in Baltimore and he was an artist first, so all
of us in Baltimore like exactly the new Marks, and
we were just yeah, he was a legend. And then
he was a death jam and we were like, oh
my god, every single I can't imagine how many people

(40:59):
from baltim more called Kevin Lyns because he was our
one guy in the music business. So I think everybody
was you.

Speaker 4 (41:07):
Was from Baltimore. Though there was a moment when when
he went, oh shit.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
Okay, I can't I can't remember. I can't remember. I
know he he is funny. I've seen Russell Simmons more
than I've seen Kevin Wow, right, because he.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
Was those white people also think that Kevin is Russell
Simmons also, I just automatically assumed, especially because black directors
that finally get let past the develvet rope, that you

(41:45):
guys automatically know each other and hang with each other.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
I mean, let me ask, like, is it territorial pissing?

Speaker 2 (41:56):
Like like once you're established, are you were you phone
buddies with in your beginning, like with a Linel or
a Hype.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
Or a Sangie or.

Speaker 4 (42:11):
More.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
People pretty much very competitive and just kept in.

Speaker 3 (42:14):
Themselves absolutely competitive, right because we were all signed to companies, right,
so they it's really interesting they knew what they were doing.
The companies really understood like, oh wow, we're getting five
hundred thousand dollars. You know, we're breaking the director off
you know, a percentage of that. But we the more

(42:37):
this business of hip hop grows, the more of these
guys we want. So some of us ended up at
the same companies. And but to answer your question, competitive
all day. For me, Lionel Martin was like a north Star,
like his work, his creativity, his his just what he

(42:57):
was able to bring. But then when you met all
the other people who were like his line producer, his
art director, like just being in New York and working
on things. There was a cross pollination because all those
people that are below the line, which is a whack term,
but you know the people who the craftsman, they're working
on everybody stuff, so they may even go, hey, man, Line,

(43:20):
I just worked with this kid Chris. So I just
worked with this kid X, and you get known. But
I think for us Hype in line. First it was
Linel of course, but then Heype was like a super
north Star. And then all of us meet Paul X, Benny,
Dave Myers, you know Benny love Benny, and I think

(43:46):
we were all in a friendly competition. We were in
a friendly competition in the most beautiful way because then
we'd see each other in the oh, we're in the
streets to LA, or we're at this party or at
this thing, and then we would I'd be our first
opportunity to chop it up, first opportunity to talk. Then
you found like, oh, his brother's cool or you know whatever.

(44:08):
So and then as we've grown, we've been like cheering
for each other. It was so hard to break into TV, right,
so if I was did something in TV, I'd get
a call from Benny or whatever, like, yo, how did
you you know? How did you get over that hump?
And I'm trying to you know, I remember when Benny
was trying to get his first TV episode. You know,
same thing with me. You know, I had to be

(44:29):
brought in by that. So I think the same thing
happened with us as we grew. I remember the first time,
I'll give you a little little who we got? Who is?
Benny was Hype's first A d okay? Right then Benny
the first big video he got a Puffy called me

(44:52):
and did he now? So did? He called me and
he was like, Chris, I want you to do this video.
I think it was genuine.

Speaker 4 (45:01):
I don't want to know.

Speaker 3 (45:03):
I did it. I don't want to know. That's right,
I did. But this was like there on a bridge.
It was dope, dope video. And me and Puff had
been working a lot by then. You know, Puff is
extremely demanding executive. So yeah, the budget was low, right,
So I said the budget was. I mean, we'll see,

(45:25):
it's all perspective because I think it back then it
was like one seventy five, which today for the movies
that was directed exactly. But he had been spending north
of four hundred thousand and still being unsatisfied if you
didn't get to the to the thing right. So I said, look, man,
you're going to be out there yelling and screaming and mad.

(45:48):
Why don't you just raise the budget a little bit.
So he's like, I can't raise the budget. This song
ain't charging no, no, no, And so I was going
to do it, but I but he moved on and
he gave Benny the job, and that video blew Benny up,
and Puff called me after that was like, hey, yeah,
you're up on the hill at the House on the Hill.

(46:09):
Now you ain't trying to grind no more. Now he
like dug it in. But you know, like yeah, but
that was dope because that was Benny's opportunity. And then
the other part of that is that Melina was Benny's assistant. Wow, yeah, Benny.

(46:30):
She was Benny's assistant. And then I remember there was
a video for Ludacris that he didn't do that she did,
and then that blew her up. So there, So I
think the thing that I appreciate about our era in
our community is that all those pieces like connected in
some kind of way to push us where we are.

(46:53):
We got to just keep going.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
So, okay, when you are putting flyers in the record stores, right,
I'll do your video and you start making traction. At
what point do you realize that there's a pivot to
this and that maybe you want to start doing something

(47:17):
more like maybe the next step up is epk's and
then the next step is commercials. Then the next step
of is episodes production company. So for you, what was
your first pivot too? Hey, there's something more I can
do besides the music video.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
Yeah, I wish that I could be like Yo, And
then I saw the light, you know, but I was
so dug into music videos that I didn't see anything else.
Like the start was music videos were never a dream.
It was making movies, you know, after reading She's got

(47:57):
to have it.

Speaker 2 (47:58):
Right, So you wanted to make movies from the gate
Gate from the gate, I wrote, Okay, I wrote a
feature I wrote a feature script, you know, when I
was twenty.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
Of course, it's like every twenty year old script. That
was a story about me, about a kid who went
to college and then the old thing. Right. So, but
then as I was trying to work within the business,
because I did all those warehouse jobs and those, you know,
janitorial jobs, and I was like, I gotta figure out

(48:29):
how to stay in the in the game. Music videos
became a way to make two hundred dollars. Then it
just grew and the business I just timing was right,
and the business grew, and I was like, I'm never
going back because I had a couple of dollars and
I just was like, I'm never going back to how
that felt, you know, being in a guard shack as

(48:51):
a security guard with a rat running under you know
what I mean in Baltimore. So I just tried to
get better and better and better and better and there
and I was embedded in the culture. And you know,
when I went to a bigger company, which was Michelle
Gandri's company, part of the you know, there was an

(49:11):
executive there who was like, man, you need to shoot commercials,
and it was so funny. I had my one experience.
I did Maya in Common for Coca Cold.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
You shot that, Oh.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
Yeah, I didn't.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
I didn't know you directed that joint. I wasn't on
the set, but I did the music to that.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
Of course you did exactly so, but but I that experience.
Once I did it, it didn't feel good to me
because when you do a commercial, every time you do
a take, you stop. You have to look back at
the agency, and the agency is huddled around the TV.

(49:51):
And then then they tell you if you can move on,
even if you can move to the medium shot. And
so I've had a few years is now and of
being like the record company just having trust and going Okay, man, thanks,
we're gonna we're gonna go to lunch while you guys
do this. We'll be back later, and just having kind
of that full creative power. And what I didn't realize

(50:18):
is that, man, you should you should really make these
relationships like l to me back in the day, like
advertising is a thing you can bring your talent to
this world. And because of that executive, I did a
lot of stuff. I did Nike and Gatorading. I got
to do a lot, but I never enjoyed it. I

(50:40):
just wanted to get back to, you know, dealing with
you know.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
What I knew I was going to use this moment
to ask was that the executive was that Ron Fair
micromanaging you.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
Ron Fair, ron FA didn't mess with me too much. Cool.

Speaker 2 (51:01):
He's probably the reason why I didn't want to go
to a commercial suit like he. I mean at the time,
I was like regularly producing common so I thought, okay, really,
I thought, okay, this is gonna be my audition to
start working with Maya. But I didn't realize that Ron
Fair was being brought in to make sure that like.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
Basically he just kud A Todd the whole thing, and like,
is he.

Speaker 6 (51:24):
What the advertising company or is he what the.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
Ron Fair is the guy who famously told the Black
Eyed Peas, look, guys, you could either be a success
or you could be the roots. Which one you want
to be? Like Ron Fair was Jimmy I Bean's right
hand man.

Speaker 4 (51:43):
That's why we gotta have will On ou know what
you know?

Speaker 6 (51:46):
If he made.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
So, you're still my buddy.

Speaker 3 (51:52):
But yeah, I remember Ron Fair used to come with
his Dora and he just right, he was come through.
He didn't bother me too much like he But it's
just weird, you know when you think back, Like my
focus was so on the work, you know, and until
the ad who you know, we had worked together so

(52:14):
many times shout out Moni Greenley. He was like, okay,
I'd be going on to the next shot to go Chris, Okay,
we gotta stop, we gotta have this conversation with these
eighteen people, So that pivot didn't really happen, you know,
like like I thought about it and did the pivot.

(52:35):
It happened because there was an executive who recognized.

Speaker 4 (52:39):
This is gonna sound real random. But as you're talking,
it just made me think. So, did did the Wire
have any effect on you in a way as a director?

Speaker 3 (52:47):
No, just I was I was in I was. I
remember I used to watch The Wire in the edit
facility while I was in La Wow. The only effect
that it had on me was everybody going, is it
really like that in Baltimore?

Speaker 4 (53:02):
I start as a director and being from Baltimore, and
it made you to go like, maybe there is something
else for me outside of these commercials in this video
And you know, I didn't know that made you feel like.

Speaker 3 (53:12):
Well, by the time the Wire came, yeah, I was.
I was pretty pretty deep in it. So I definitely
wanted to shoot the Wire and I had. One of
the things that I regret to this day is I
got a call from Bob Colesberg, who was one of
the creators of Wire, and Bob Colesbery said, hey, man,

(53:33):
we heard you from Baltimore. I saw your work. Would
you come and do an episode? Hell? Yeah, I'm coming.
All right? So this is this is this is how
you you know, this is what you learned about agents
and everything, right, Okay, So Listen invited me to come
and direct. And when I talked later, there's some guys

(53:54):
who were on there like it just Elba. They had
told the actors like, yo, Chris Roberts is coming, were like, Yo,
don't you know, We're gonna get this brother to come through.
So I had done atl and I was in post.
I mean I was almost done. I think we were
like just doing the sound. And my agent was like, well, Chris,
you probably shouldn't do that because maybe Warner Brothers might

(54:17):
feel away, and you know, I'm new. You know, I'm
new as far as like working with us. It's my
first movie. And I listened to him and that was
a mistake. But then how God works, I got another
call and I was working on What was I working on?

(54:38):
I was working on some big, big opportunity, but it
was the same thing. Like I was in post and
they offered it to me again, and I didn't do it.
I couldn't do it. I was in the middle of
you know what it was. I was in the middle
of a movie that never happened, right. You know, you
do a movie like they don't pay you, you're on
it for a year, and then if it pops, you go.

(55:00):
So I was in the middle of this and once
again I got that advice and didn't do it.

Speaker 6 (55:07):
So will you be on a movie for a year
and they don't pay you? What is this? What is
this movie? Magic? No, y'all gotta let me tell you something.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
Y'all better tell these people the real story of how
this shit happens. Because people just think the money is
thrown in the beginning. They make a deal and you're
rich throughout the making of it to the end and
didn't get stuff on the back end.

Speaker 3 (55:27):
To make a movie is difficult, as question of to
make a mediocre movie is difficult. It is brutal to
think of all these things that are in your head
and how you have to work with a crew of
people to make all this stuff work, the personalities, the actors.

(55:48):
It's difficult. Right to make a great movie. That director
is like miracle genius genius level, right, a miracle worker.
I always look at these guys when you when you
watch a movie and you are just thoroughly satisfied and go,
what did he go through to make this? To make

(56:10):
this thing happen? And having the experience now it's it's
it's difficult. But every movie you see, there's this last
movie I did with you know, Shooting Stars. I'm on
that movie for three and a half years, because there's
there's the prep and then there's oh, we're gonna go oh,

(56:32):
actually the studio is going to push it till next year,
like you know, that's just the that's just the way
it ends.

Speaker 8 (56:38):
And the book. The producer got the rights to the
book thirteen years ago. So when you you would think, oh,
it's Lebron James, this is a layup, this movie is
gonna get made quickly.

Speaker 3 (56:52):
It took thirteen years for that movie to be made,
and I was on it for three and a half.
So it's it's a it has to you have to
love it. It's got to be a labor of love.
And that's just what it is. What takes so.

Speaker 5 (57:07):
Long for a movie about the biggest basketball start in
the world to be made, well.

Speaker 3 (57:12):
I think from the perspective of the studio, the studio
right they're going, Okay, well does this work in our slate?
Because they got all these other movies. They're making a
big giant I'm not saying I don't think Universal does Marvel,
but whatever those big movies are, right, then there's a

(57:35):
lot of they're going for awards or other movies, just
whatever their slate is, Where does it fit in? Once
it's there, when do we put that movie out when's
most advantageous. So they're dealing with the business aspect. We're
dealing with the creative aspect. How do you tell this story?
Because there's been a book, there's been a documentary, now

(57:56):
here's a feature film. What's the tone? How do you
tell this? Why people care? Who can play Lebron James?
Let's do that for you.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
Yeah, I was going to say, isn't isn't timing of
the essence? Because if you're telling the not a cradle
of the grave, but a childhood to adult story, like
the likelihood of your target that you're working with.

Speaker 4 (58:17):
Might get older and then be the past age of.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
What you need him for. Like, isn't that also a problem?

Speaker 3 (58:23):
Well, I think if the person was in it right.
So when we finally found Mookie Cook to play Lebron.
You know he's seventeen, you know, so we once that
was really the button pusher, like can you find Lebron?
Like it's a needle in the haystack, Like no, we didn't.
Nobody believe a lot of people just were like, how

(58:46):
is this ever going to happen? You know, a lot
of people had no idea Caleb McLaughlin could who you
know they needed to be for this particular movie. There
needed to be an athletic skill level, and there needed
to be acting skill level. And I'd worked with Caleb
on the New Edition story, so I knew, and he'd

(59:09):
been lying king on Broadway. His kid's pretty amazing, right,
so I learned. I watched him learn to dance.

Speaker 4 (59:14):
Like stranger things for everybody else who doesn't even know
what we talking about.

Speaker 3 (59:18):
Yeah, yeah, Caleb. And but then when he came to
the audition, he had handled he was balling. I pulled
him aside. I was like, hey man, what you been
doing since I saw you three years ago? Like he
could ball for real? And that was a godsend because
he's such an amazing actor. But but just to answer
your question, like those things, that's real time like we found.

(59:40):
We didn't do a traditional casting. We did some traditional
with Kim Coleman, who was amazing. She does all the
big movies. But we we actually got in a car
and went up and down the East Coast, Me and
my boy Yer own hips and yeah, Jay, yes, I.

Speaker 6 (59:59):
Didn't know he was that involved.

Speaker 3 (01:00:01):
Gracious he ended up coming in and being one of
our basketball consultants because he's so into that and it's
just the man. And we went up and down the
East Coast to AAU tournaments and found Mookie and found Scoot. Wow,
here's a good way that. Here's a good story about
how videos connect. We met Scoot's dad. Now, Scoot just

(01:00:26):
went number three in the draft to Portland Trailblazers.

Speaker 6 (01:00:29):
What wait, hold on.

Speaker 3 (01:00:32):
He plays Romeo in the movie. Okay, okay, so he
just draft night. He went number three to the Portland Trailblazer. Wow.

Speaker 6 (01:00:39):
He was really good too.

Speaker 4 (01:00:42):
It's something else in there.

Speaker 6 (01:00:42):
I was like, oh, it's more story.

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
Okay, yes, yeah, so we meet his dad. Now, think
we're at an AAU tournament going, excuse me, sir, we're
making a movie about Lebron James, and like it's just
me and himps, it's no official anybody else with us,
and the dad is kinda and his son's gonna go
his son's already in the G League and his son's
gonna go pro. He was there with his other kids.

(01:01:06):
He's got other kids who were in a tournament. But
hips knew of his dad. So we're talking to his
dad and and we do our pitch and then you know,
I have to pitch. How there's a little silence, and
these were just stand there looking at each other, and
he goes, didn't you do one mic?

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
And I was like, yes, yes.

Speaker 3 (01:01:27):
That legitimized me to him to have this conversation about
his son being in the movie and that that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
Dad as hip hop heads. I wish I knew the
feeling man, the feeling.

Speaker 5 (01:01:41):
Chris, I want to ask you about Erica is the
Honey video? You did that under an alias?

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
What was the Yeah? Was that your Alan Smithy?

Speaker 4 (01:01:50):
Like?

Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
No, no, no, or were you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
Trying to just establish your company different? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:01:56):
Okay, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
Uh this sounds like what it was.

Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
Erica and I had worked before. Now I'm gonna tell
let me start this off by saying how much I
love Erica, but she she is not only a wonderful,
amazing artist, but she is a icon. So we worked
together and on the first one with common love of

(01:02:23):
my life. But what I didn't know is like Erica's
very involved. Like Erica wants to make the outfit, she
wants to cook the lunch, she wants to look at
every shot. And we did it and it wasn't it's not.
So then we worked again on this so like we

(01:02:46):
had the connection, right, she wanted to work together again.
We were together again and I had, you know, my
company's Roby Film Company. My Instagram handles mister Roberto director.
So now I think this is before Instagram or anything else,
but I had, you know, people would call me mister
Robot and mister Rabato. So we did it again and

(01:03:09):
it was the same thing. But she this is the
first time she wanted a director's credit. Now, in the
video world, there is a thing where certain artists will
want a video a director's credit. And I took that
thing seriously, like I'm like, okay, if we're gonna co

(01:03:30):
direct this cool, But like certain artists would just go,
I'm the artist, just put my name on it. And
so me and Erica worked together. It was beautiful. It
was the most beautiful. We had known each other, so
we knew how to work together, and I think we
pulled out another good one because she's she's a genius,

(01:03:51):
especially choosing all those names for the album covers. So
then I get a note from the label later that
said Erica wants her director's credit on this, and you know,
I was like, what so because I take it so seriously,

(01:04:13):
So I was like, well, I mean, if she's gonna
get her get the director's credit, that's cool. I'm just
in my artist ship and now go, I'm gonna put
mister Rabato, right, because that's that's my aliens. So I
put mister Rabato and then we won the damn MTV Award,

(01:04:36):
My my MTV Award Best Director, mister not have my
name on it. Less just to be clear on this
amazing podcast, Erica Baddud, I have so much love for you.

(01:04:56):
We've worked together. I've shot her and a different you
know shows, and we always have talked about doing a
movie together. But I just think that's this, this mister
Roboto represents. I'm an artist and I'm sensitive about my.

Speaker 1 (01:05:14):
Understandable understandable.

Speaker 6 (01:05:16):
You did really well with that explanation.

Speaker 7 (01:05:20):
Hey QLs listeners, this is unpaid billed right. Here's where
we're going to pause this interview. Check back next week.
You're looking your podcast being for part two. In that conversation,
Chris Robinson reveals more inf and outs from the iconic
music videos and it's pivot to filmmaking. Make sure you
check out Chris Robinson's latest creation, Shooting Stars, where he
tells the story of teenage Lebron James.

Speaker 1 (01:05:39):
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