Hi!
I bet you’re all wondering what’s up with the title of this blog post…?
Funny story… Ya see, what had happen was… (famous quote from every man, woman and child that got caught)
I may be making it out to sound worse than what it really is but I’m a writer so bear with me, I like telling stories! As some of you may know, we (Johnny J Jones and I) recently shot my new music video “Ninjas in DURM”, and we went everywhere around the bull! From the Cornwallis PJs to the YMCA American Tobacco Basketball Courts. From the gritty train tracks to the beautiful downtown area. Over HWY 147 (Durham Freeway) and even on the one way street of Market. We tried to capture everything that is DURM along with all of its amazing inhabitants.
On St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th, we started filming the very last sequence of the music video where we were to have a HUGE dance number. We invited a few friends. And DURM showed out in true form! Costumes were assembled, make up was applied, hula hoops where twirling and of course Wool E Bull showed up.
With Lilly’s Pizza in our bellies and Triangle Brew in our veins we pushed through several takes in the cold and dank weather and created, what I believe, to be the biggest “staged” dance number in DURM (please comment if I’m wrong). It was a complete success!
Photos captured by Dare Fela K-j
We wrapped up shooting the following week, completed editing, pressed it up and had a Video Premier party at The Carrack on April 16th. Despite a few technical difficulties with sound (Thanks Rosean for fixing that) we managed to premier the video. After the credits rolled and the lights came on, it was followed by a resounding round of applause! It was released on youtube later that evening, gaining 1300+ views within the first few hours! Another complete success!
Photos captured by Beth Mandel of Triangle.com
The very next day, early in the morning, I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing. I answered. On the other end was the Durham Bulls Ball club. We exchanged pleasantries, they told me that they were in LOVE with the video but politely asked me to take it down. I was, at first, in shock, “I’m sorry, but why?”. Then they explained it to me, and after reviewing the video what we didn’t realize while filming was that we accidentally captured someone mimicking smacking Wool E Bull on the tail… literally. And Wool E Bull, one of the primary representatives of Durham, should be represented with the utmost respect. You wouldn’t go on Sesame St bend Big Bird over and commence to twerkin’ it. So that same respect is deserved by Durham’s Mascot. It was a complete fail!
And for this I apologize to Wool E Bull. My goal is to make Hip Hop music that is respected, it may not always be accepted, and thats fine, but it will be respected. And I did not show you (Wool E) that same respect and I sincerely apologize. I’m trying to represent DURM in the most positive way imaginable, some of my rhymes maybe dark and gritty at times but for the most part there is a meaning and light in between the lines. I hope you can accept my apology.
So below is the revised version of “Ninjas in DURM” [Official Music Video] ft Wool E Bull (tail-smacking-free of course) and ALL of DURM! Thank you for reading this far and I hope you continue to enjoy and share the video!! My conscience is at ease… Phew!!
We have entered the video to be nominated in the 2013 Carolina Music Awards for Video of the Year. Please Help Out by going to “CarolinaMusicAwards.com/cma/nominate” to get this video to be in the running as one of the nominees. Lets bring these awards back to DURM… again!
