While Christmas in Los Angeles brings sunshine instead of snowflakes, Angelinos can still enjoy holiday festivities—particularly the music. In today’s podcast episode, graffiti artist Man One and filmmaker VONJAKO join host Scott “Sourdough” Power to discuss the creative journey behind the music video for “Christmas in L.A.,” a unique hip-hop holiday track celebrating the vibrant culture of LA. Released by Crewest Studio as a tribute to the city, the song features a powerhouse lineup of LA-based emcees, including Aceyalone, 2Mex, Medusa, and Myka 9, along with members from Grammy-winning band Ozomatli. Produced by Dan Ubick of Danube Productions, “Christmas in L.A.” stands out as a rare addition to holiday music, infusing traditional festivities with the city’s iconic hip-hop roots. 

The episode delves into the challenges of the music video’s production, highlighting the creative decisions that brought a fresh perspective to Santa Claus’s portrayal—reimagined as a graffiti artist. Man One and VONJAKO discuss the importance of collaboration, emphasizing how working with local talent contributes to an authentic representation of LA culture. They reflect on the joys and trials encountered during filming, reinforcing the significance of storytelling in art and the shared experience of creating with limited resources. 

Listeners will hear insights about the joy of authenticity in the creative process and the unexpected adventures that arise when artists engage deeply with their surroundings. The episode invites audiences to appreciate the music and the stories behind it, capturing the essence of the holiday spirit in a city famously devoid of snow. As "Christmas in L.A." gains traction on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, this podcast is a crucial companion piece, illuminating the artistic spirit that defines LA's unique seasonal celebrations.

For more information, please visit https://notrealart.com/christmas-in-los-angeles-music-video

Greetings and salutations my creative brothers and sisters. Welcome to not real art the podcast where we talk to the world's most creative people. I am your host faithful trustee loyal tireless relentless hosts our dough coming at you from crew West studio in Los Angeles man. Do we have a special show for you guys today? I'm in the house with two VIPs my partners in crime my brothers from another mother the one and only into two geniuses creative geniuses the one and only man one and Von Choco. Hey guys.

What's up, what's up?

Hey, Scott, how's it going, guys?

man. man. We got the, we got the, we got the geniuses in the house and we're here for a very special occasion. You know, it's the holiday time. It's Christmas time here in LA and you guys have been hard at work producing a music video for the world's first hip hop track Christmas in LA about Christmas in LA with the OGMC's Mike at nine AC alone to max Medusa, Ozo Motley.

some incredible LA artists singing about their time celebrating growing up in LA, celebrating Christmas in LA. And Man 1 and Von Choco, you guys have put together this amazing music video that I just know people are gonna love. I love it. Our producers love it. I mean, how are you guys feeling?

Great. mean, that was a fun ride. mean, man one, you know, you need to talk.

Yeah, it was great. First time doing a thing like this, you know, art directed a video, music video, or Ben featured this much in a music video. Usually I'm in the background, like, you know, whatever, but it's my first starring role. So, you know, let's see if we win an award or something.

The starring role indeed. mean, you you guys, you know what I loved about this project, you know, was that, you know, it was definitely like a one plus one equals three. No, no, let me get that. Let me get that straight. One plus one equals ten. One plus one equals a hundred. I mean, you guys came together. And killed it because basically, let's be honest, right? Like we had no money. Right. There was like.

That's the basic start. Let's start with no money.

All right. There's never there's never enough money. Right. And you guys came together under very tight constraints, a tight budget, tight timeline and produce something that just feels so authentic, authentic, incredible and nostalgic. I feel like I'm watching like a classic hip hop video from, you know, back in the day with Yo MTV, Yo MTV raps. I mean, you guys just knocked it out of the park, man.

Yeah, well, you know, it was easy, you know, because Von Jaco, or as I call him, Jaco, was just, I mean, he's done this before, right? This is not his first time, it's not your first time doing this.

That's not my first rodeo as they say, right? Yeah, yeah So yeah, I mean, you know, I've done this many other times before but Every time is the first time so, you know, just like every time it's you know, you kind of to get creative So you start from scratch? It's not that you know, you could have done a million time is you know, every time is a fresh start so

Isn't that your first rodeo drive?

Yeah.

I think it's like, you know, it's like cooking, you know, just like we got a recipe here going on and we had those ingredients, you know, we needed to come out with some new, you know, some, something that tastes good. So, you know, we use whatever we were, we had access to it. So, and that what came out.

Well, you know, I want to back up to how this kind of initially started the conversation, you know, maybe even since last year when I created the artwork for the cover art for Christmas in LA. You know, I did the portraits of the four MCs, I did the logo treatment and all that stuff. And, you know, we started talking about, you know, making a video. Obviously last year we didn't have time to do a video, but then this year we started getting serious about it.

And all we really, think, I guess the launching pad was that, you know, I had created this, these illustrations of the MCs and they were in procreate. So there was an animation, like a time-lapse animation that it automatically creates. And so I think that's all we had. were like, wouldn't it be cool to like animate this, you know, this video and, you know, we already have the drawings.

little did we know that those drawings were just garbage. They were not usable. but the concept started there. And so, you know, once we, started going down the rabbit hole of, of actually like, what are we going to do? And then, we got the green light to do the video. you know,

I think that's the only thing we first talked about was just like, hey, I got this animation. How can we integrate it into this video? That's how it all started.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I do remember like, think the first call we had, like it might be a year ago, you know, didn't we talk about like a year ago almost. Yeah. So, you know, I think like you, when you told me about this, like you were approaching this as it's still a sort of like an animation, you know, video, but we wanted to step into live action. You know, I'm not really

Yeah.

good at animation. So I'm more like a live action kind of person. And so we just started to brainstorm what we could possibly do with starting with those drawings and kind of expand the idea into some sort of live action. So we had many phone calls talking about it, kind of like different

different scenario and different situation that we could use and just like possible adaptation of the original idea. And I think at one point, I'm just like, we were talking about Santa Claus and.

I guess the idea was like, why don't we just, you know, why don't we just have Santa Claus, going, going around? Santa Claus is a graffiti artist. You know, it goes around and tag, you know, yeah, exactly. You know, it's just like, yeah, I mean, and it makes sense. You know, it's like, you know, at the beginning, we were trying to kind of like, you know, try to be very lyric onto the video and also.

Right.

Who knew Santa was a tagger? An LA tagger.

you know, under my experience, you know, it's very sort of difficult to follow up lyrics on the video because they go so fast, mostly into a hip hop rap, you know, rap song. And so there is not enough time to catch, you know, what the lyrics are about. But I think like we were more, more, you know, trying to capture what's, what's the vibe of the song, you know, the, you know, the

the style, know, that that's what, you know, that's what the video is about pretty much. You know, it's like, you know, just kind of like, you know, visualize a sort of a style. And so, yeah, you know, that kind of like.

Yeah.

Well, when we started, mean, we didn't really have a storyline. You know, we were just, we were just like, I don't know, what do want to do? Should we shoot over here? Should we shoot over there? What if he does this? What about this lyric in the song? And we were kind of all over the place. And, you know, but, Jaco was really good at honing down to like, okay, well I like this element. So let's go down that path. And then we started going down that path and then, you know,

No.

Yeah

things just started developing and then like he said, we finally said, you know what? Yeah, let's make Santa Claus a graffiti writer and let's follow him. Let's just make it a day in the life of Santa Claus in LA, you know? And so as soon as we came up with that, then everything else became a lot easier because then we were like, okay, well, where does he start his day? Let's find a location for that.

Yeah

Yeah.

You know, what would he be doing when he wakes up? What would he be doing when he walks down the street? You know? so there was a lot of things that we had to improvise and change and, think of, you know, one of the big things is initially we thought, Santa Claus will be driving around in a low rider all day, you know? And then, we started looking into low riders and, I had no idea that, four door Chevrolet was so hard to find.

yeah.

Yeah.

I can confirm that we had so much of our time and I have to say I know a lot of people with cars and he has his own content with cars. I come from a background of a lot of car films and no one had this damn Chevrolet. It was impossible to find this specific Chevrolet.

Yeah.

Yeah, we were trying to find like a daily driver, not like some pimped out like 1950s Chevy or whatever, which is really all we could find. so eventually we just had to scratch the whole idea of him driving around town because we just couldn't get the car. But that worked out because then it made it more fun. Like, for example, throughout the video,

Right.

Yeah.

Exactly. mean.

You see the train passing by, you see the buses passing by, and then you see Santa Claus walking a lot, right? So it's Santa Claus in LA on a low budget, you He doesn't have a car.

By the way, I have to say though, I feel like Santa Claus in LA is on Ozempic because that's the skinniest fucking Santa Claus I ever saw. I guess it's all the walking, you know, of course, of course, the LA Santa is going to be fit, you know.

you

Right, right. Yeah, exactly.

After all that walking, it's probably gonna be skinny.

We solved Santa's issue. He just never walks. He needs to walk. Yeah, he's fucking lazy in that play.

Yeah, I mean, it's a Hollywood Santa Claus. like, you know, he's watching his lines, watching his weight, you know.

It needs to fucking walk.

you

10 billion steps.

Well, you know what's funny is a couple of times while we were shooting, someone would stop us or yell at us or just say something. a couple of times someone said, hey, finally a Santa Claus that fits down the chimney. Yeah, someone said that to us.

Damn, yeah.

Ha

Somebody actually said that.

That's true.

Well, by the way, that's a great, that's a great story considering the fact that, one of the lyrics in the track is like, and how did Santa get into this apartment? You know I mean? How the hell did Santa get into this apartment? You know, he's skinny. Yeah.

Yeah.

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So.

Yes. Yeah. What? Yeah, it's a skinny Santa Claus. He has to walk around.

man, man, man. Yeah. You know, it's, yeah, man. mean, just the whole concept, everything, just the, it's such a testament to what creativity can do, what two creative people, professional artists can do. You know, when you come together and to solve a problem, right? You start with nothing.

And you come up with something super special, or at least in this case, you know, you guys came up with something super special and it just reeks of authenticity and, and, and delights and joy and, and, and, and grits. I mean, you know, you go Santa walks from downtown to the beach. mean, you know, like he's, he's all over the city in this. It's amazing.

is everywhere. Yeah. I mean, that's yeah, exactly. You know, you know, the thing is, in graffiti terms, you know, the goal of every graffiti writers to go all city, right. And to get up all city and, you know, Santa Claus got up all city, you know.

Yeah, I mean, it's on a budget.

Yeah.

Man, man. I tell you what, I tell you what, it's unfortunate you didn't have a bigger budget because if you'd had a bigger budget, could've filmed Santa skating at the skate park. With the meager budget that you were given for this, and we won't talk about that because, you know, mean, business is business. But anyway.

I know.

Yeah, I mean...

I mean Scott, Scott, I had to set me up. Yeah.

But that way, you poor Santa has to go and watch. mean, that was so great. I mean, the fact that you guys are hanging out the skate part is amazing. But then it struck me like, my God, how funny would it be if Santa was like getting it, you know, in the bowl?

I can assure you that it was on the list. I mentioned that to my one, I had my skateboard in my trunk all the time, but I could not risk Santa Claus just breaking a bone. that was on the list, Santa skating.

Ha ha ha ha!

Hahaha

He did.

Ha ha ha ha!

Yeah, it wasn't in the budget.

Yeah.

You know, Sarah on a, on a, on a BMX or something, something, something like that. I mean, it's, it was on the list, but you know.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, well, pro skaters don't come cheap. So, you know, because you need a stunt man, you know, at the end of the day, man, man, man, one can can can can play the Santa Claus graffiti artist, Santa, graffiti, Santa. But, know, to to to to play, you know, skate pro, you know, he might break his neck and wear his arm. And we don't want that because he's got he's got the control the cans.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

I mean, I have to say, like, you know, this idea, seems like to be like, you know, the plan B idea, but actually it's not because it's, know, it's actually a much harder idea, you know, compared to what we had the beginning because like live action like this, like shooting on the street in LA is not that easy because just moving from one place to another, it's two hours, you know?

Right.

Yeah.

So, the days goes fast. They're not very short. So accomplish something like that in a, you know, in, in a few days. I mean, we, took like, it took us a few days, like, you know, going against traffic. It's always, it's a much harder ideas, know, a much harder achievement to do it. And.

Yeah, well, think a lot of a lot of well, maybe the listeners, lot of the listeners of this particular episode, of course, will be very familiar with LA's landscape, geography and traffic. But for people who are listening who aren't familiar with LA, you know, I mean, to get from anywhere from point A to point B, man, you know, could be five miles and take you an hour, you know, like, you just don't know what traffic is going to do to you. And and to your point, Jaco, like, you know, yeah, I mean, you got to bake the truck, the drive time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

into the production schedule.

Right. Exactly. And you don't know what is gonna, you know, what, what, what situation you're going to find in the location you arrive because he's, you know, we're low budget. So we kind of like, you know, on the go and, you know, we just kind of like, yeah, we, yeah, we, run and go, you know, we run and gone. So, so I wanted to say it's like, man one means like he did a hell of a job because

Well, gorilla, gorilla, gorilla production, right?

I could have had like, you know, body doubles, stunts, you know, but he did it all himself. you know what I mean? It's like that stuff, you know, you know.

He kept telling me, I remember at the beginning, like, you know, should really think about getting a double because then we could shoot a lot more stuff. He goes, you're going to get hot and tired in that outfit. And I was like, I'll be fine. I'll be fine. And then after, after like the first two hours of shooting, like, you know, that fricking bag got so heavy. Santa's bag got so heavy. had like, you know, minimal stuff in there, but after two hours of

Yeah

Yeah.

Yeah

Yeah.

But he was right.

Yeah.

carrying it and dropping it and carrying it and you know, it gets heavy. And then the beard and everything starts, you know, itching your face and it's hot. yeah, I was like, now I understand why these actors have doubles and other people, you know, shooting the scenes where they're not necessarily closeups, you know? So yeah, it was an experience.

Yeah, you

Cause like, know, shit happens and the day's long, have to repeat the, you know, the takes and, know, for some reason, you know, you have to go faster or shorter jump, whatever, you know, just like we should have, I mean, you did, you did a great job because you kind of like, you were like listening to me and I was like pulling things out of my ass. So, so I was like, you could have says like, Juggler, what the fuck you're talking about? It's like, you know, but you didn't. So.

Yeah.

Yeah, well, there was no one else to listen to on set. Yeah.

No, I went along, man. I was just like, I need someone to direct me. So, I mean, you one of the things was we would come up with certain situations or certain locations and then we'd say, okay, let's, about a scene where, you know, Santa Claus goes and does this, this and that. And then we had it planned out in our heads and then we had to get on our schedule to make sure it was a certain day that we could both do it.

and make sure it's not like a Thursday or a Friday where the traffic is crazy or whatever. there was, and then to make sure the weather was okay. Cause even the weather, you know, like, I don't even think about that, you know, Jocko's favorite term was it's, it's milk today, you know, cause there was no sun, but it would be milk. Yeah. And so, and so we would.

Yeah.

Milk.

Yeah, it's like cloud, you know, it's like the, it's like the doom gloom forever pretty much.

as best we could figure it out and come up with scenarios. And then we'd go out to the location and everything would go sideways. I mean, there was like, you know, we couldn't get into the location or we couldn't find parking or people were harassing us, you know, or whatever. Just random things would happen that we weren't expecting, you And then we had to think on our feet and make it work, you know?

Yeah, I mean we got we got kicked out once by the way, you know. Yeah, we did got kicked. It's like.

Well, target.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, tell us, tell us some of some of the adventures like some of the the the shit that you guys ran into. It sounds like you got kicked out. Sounds like you got harassed. Like what happened?

Yeah.

Thank

Cough

I it's like, like I said, I shot a lot of stuff and I do a lot of like run and gun and I was like, you know, just go with the flow. And I have all my, you know, approach to things, like always be polite and just be like, try, you know, it's like, don't ask for permission, ask for forgiveness kind of shit. but, we got kicked out of a park, you know, it's like, it's a public park. It's like, we got, it's like, you know, you can, you can shoot here, you know.

Yeah.

Right, right.

Man, one can tell you better. That was like...

Yeah, were, know, one of the locations that we shot at that we thought was important was in Leimert Park. And, you know, some of the MCs were there, obviously, you know, because, you know, you think of Freestyle Fellowship and, you know, you think of The Good Life and all these places that have so much history in Leimert Park. And so we knew we wanted to shoot several things there. You know, there's a beautiful mural that just went up by

El Mac and coffee and an Aceborn. We wanted to capture that. There was different things in Leimert Park we wanted to capture. there's a very prominent, what do call it? Like a big sign with Leimert Park on it. Well, it doesn't say Leimert Park, but it's right by the park. when you see this tower, you know you're in Leimert Park. And so we wanted to get a shot of us.

Mm-hmm

Well, Santa Claus, you know, walking in front of it. And that's all we were going to do. We're just going to walk in front of it. And, know, pretty much the, the, the, scenario every time was we would stay in the car. We were in two different cars, but I would stay in the car until the last minute when he was ready with them, with, with the camera, he'd come to my window and he said, okay, let's go. And then I, put on my sunglasses. had everything going on. put the cap on and I'd walk out and we start, we start shooting immediately. Cause we didn't know what was going to happen.

And so we start, start walking towards, you know, towards that area by the park. And there was some people, I think they were just smoking out and they were just kicking it. This broad daylight middle of the day, you know, and they're just kind of like smoking in their car or whatever. And it was like one woman and like a few, you know, a few dudes. And as I'm walking, the woman gets out of the car and she's like, yo, what do you think you're doing? And I'm like,

I'm like, we're just, yeah, we're just, you know, shooting right here, whatever. She goes, no, who gave you permission? And I'm like, what do mean? I don't need permission. I'm, you know, we're on a park. Well, who do you know out here? And so I started dropping some names, you know, especially the MCs. said, you know, we're doing this video with, with Micah 9 and Medusa and AC alone. She said, I never heard of them. And I go, wait, you're from Limer Park. You never heard of them? She's like, I don't know who you're talking about. And I don't care, but you know, you got to get out of here.

It's a public park.

And we were like, you we're not gonna argue. you know, her homeboys started coming around and we're like, okay, this is the, you let's, we don't wanna film Santa Claus in a brawl.

And by the way, for again, for those, for those people listening that maybe aren't familiar with the, with Los Angeles and limber park and the whole thing, like this is a potentially gang activity happening right now. Like you don't know if they're strapped, you don't know what they got, you know, like they're protecting their turf or whatever. And you know, at the end of the day, like you got to, you got to respect.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. know, we're not, we're not, we're not trying to start nothing. You know, I don't know who they are. They were obviously coming at me kind of hard and, and it's a woman, you know, and like, I'm not going to start arguing with this woman who has, you know, these dudes in backup or whatever. And, you know, it would have been kind of funny though, if, Santa Claus started scrapping with these people and we got it on camera. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad it didn't happen, but that could have been funny.

You

Why didn't we get that footage? my God, that would have been amazing.

No. my God. Yeah, but.

And so, so we just said, you know what? Okay, let's, let's, let's, let's cut our losses. Let's just, you know, let's just be respectful and get out of here. So I start walking back to the car and as we start walking back to the car, there's, there's a, this little kid there with his dad and the dad says, can I, can I, can my son take a picture with you? You know, and we're like, yeah, yeah, what the hell? not? So I'm standing with this kid and the dad's taking a picture.

Yeah.

And that woman comes over again and she's like starts yelling at the guy like, are doing? You know, that's, know, they can't, can't be here, you know, and the guy's like, it's Santa Claus. I'm taking a picture of Santa Claus with my kid. Right. And so she's even harassing the dad, you know, and so.

you

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you.

She was hard. She was hard, man. Don't fuck with her.

Nah, she didn't want any of it. And so we were just like, we took the picture, the kid was all happy. I gave him some stickers and then we just went on our way. That's as hairy as it got. We didn't get anything else too crazy. That was probably the craziest, you know? But yeah, you know, one of the things I learned, like an incredible thing I learned on this set, on this shoot was,

my God.

Yeah, it's a...

If you want everyone, or not everyone, but the majority of the people around you or in the neighborhood or on the daily commute, if you want most of those people to be nice to you and be happy, dress up as Santa Claus. Because everywhere we went, except for this woman, but everywhere else, mean, people would just walk up to me and start telling me stories.

cars, people will pull over in their cars and roll their windows down and start asking me stuff like, Hey, so Santa, are you going to come to my house this year? You know, blah, blah, blah. I've been, I've been good. You know, other times people would say, you know, Santa, I wanted a pony. I never got it. You know, it was so random and it was everywhere. It was everywhere. Like every single time, every single time guaranteed someone would roll by and yell Santa, Santa. And, know, they

Yeah.

yell from their cars. It was just, it was amazing. It was amazing. was like, like, wow, no wonder Santa does this all over the world. It's pretty cool, you know? So that's one, that's my big lesson. Dress up like Santa and the world will be happy.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's a big difference, you know, just like nobody's gonna also, you know, exactly, you know

Nobody hates Santa, except that woman.

Bigger, bigger, bigger than the Beatles, you know?

For sure.

yeah. mean, it was magical. It's like the moment like, you know, I've done a lot of video with different situation. People we're dressed up in weird things, but Santa Claus open up every single door except for this park situation, which was like, we, right.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's always, there's always somebody, the one ringer, you know, whatever, right.

Well, you know, know, when we pull up to the scape, the skate park, you know, we shot a lot of a lot there in Venice beach. And then when we pull up to the skate park, I didn't know how the skaters were going to react. Right. Because I thought, you know, maybe they're not going to, they're not going to dig us, you know, filming or whatever. Well, it was completely the opposite. As soon as I pulled up to the rail, everyone started yelling Santa blah, blah, blah, this and that. And people started directing.

Yeah.

the skaters like, dude, you gotta do an air, do an air right in front of right in front of Santa, you know, you gotta, you gotta do this. And they were calling out tricks to tell, they were calling out tricks to the skateboarders to do in front of Santa. so people who were chilling on the side, they got on their boards and started doing more tricks and started, you know, just riding more because they knew I was there, that Santa, you know? So they were just like, like, we gotta show off for Santa. It was pretty dope.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wow, that's powerful, man. mean, you know, it's like, you know, it's one unifying principle, right? It's like, it's like.

Yup.

Yeah, yeah. Dude, Santa, Santa, have voted for president. That will unite the country.

Totally. mean, mean, that would just solve all the problems. Absolutely. Yeah. I have to say, you know, I think one of the most sketchy spot that we've been is probably Hollywood Boulevard and man, one can actually confirm that. Yeah. It's like, it's such a weird mixture of tourists and zombie, you know?

That will solve everything.

you

yeah.

Right, right.

Right.

And you don't know who's going to approach you, but, know, luckily we had Santa Claus with, know, I had Santa Claus with me because there was like potential situation where like, we weren't, if we didn't, you know, if you didn't wear the Santa Claus costume, will totally be harassed, you know, completely. Yeah.

Yeah

yeah. So yeah, exactly. Like, like if we would have done the exact same scenes and I'm just dressed in normal outfit, well, we would have got kicked out. We would have got punched. We would have had stuff thrown at us for sure. Absolutely. You know, even, even security guards, even security guards, like we thought security guards were going to kick us out of certain places and then they'd see us and they come up to us and they say like, well, what are you doing? And then we tell them, we're just going to film right here. yeah, go for it. Yeah. Yeah. It's all good. It's all good. You know,

Yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

you

No, no. yeah, yeah. It's true.

Yes.

Which was amazing because, you know, without the costume, will 100 % kick us out of those locations. Right? So.

Yes.

So that explains why you're still wearing it. You got the hat on. You're like, I'm not taking this off. This gets me in anywhere. This is like VIP pass anywhere.

Yeah, I'm going to wear it for the whole year. I'm to it whole year.

R-

It is, it is a pass, you know, it's, it's pretty crazy, but, but, yeah, we had a lot of fun doing it. you know, some of the, some of the behind the scenes things were just crazy. And, you know, most of the time it was just me and Jaco. there was a couple of times when, when my daughter came out as a PA and helped us on a couple, a couple of days, but yeah, but, most of the time, most of the time it was, it was,

Shout out Viviana.

yeah.

It was just us two, you know? And so we had that, we were like watching each other's backs, filming, directing, acting, doing everything. Yeah, you know? So I have a much bigger appreciation now for what it takes to make a video or a movie or anything like that, because production is no joke, you know?

Yeah.

All together, yeah.

Well, but.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, you know, so so but the truth is, right, part of the reason why the video is so dope and you guys just killed it is that you've worked together before. This isn't your first project together.

No, we've done things before, yeah, you know, we've done...

Yeah. And so you make a great team. And obviously, Chaco, mean, you're a vet, you're a pro, you've done it for Porsche, you've done it for big brands like all over the world, your world-class talent in terms of direction and production and creativity, what have you. But then together, you guys, like I said, one plus one equals 100, whatever. But this isn't your first project together. So

The fact that you can, but this was maybe probably your first music video together, right? So like, how did you guys meet originally? Like, how did you guys initially connect?

Yeah.

I can. OK, sure. So let's say, I mean, I entered the whole street. mean, the whole street artist, street art kind of vibe a few years ago, because I always been I've always been passionate about street artists. didn't know shit about it.

Jackal story.

You know, I've been living here for many, many years and I started to do this thing, you know, with, with, with taking picture of, of murals and, and, and, and, and, and, and, street artists, you know, using my, my, my glass, my sunglasses, you know, and then one knows about it. You know, it's like I had this, I started to do this Instagram on, you know, where I was taking picture of

portraits, you know, using my sunglasses to just, you know, kind of like virtually embellish, you know, the image, you know, and I started to do a lot of those and collect a lot of those. And to the point that I, you know, started to know who is who. So I kind of like, I kind of like, you know, did a crash course on learning, you know, the artists on the street, you know, who was, you know, different styles.

And over the course of doing this, some of the artists are reaching out to me because they were looking at my pictures and one of the person is, you know, is Man 1. So I got to know different artists, but I sort of like click with Man 1, you know, many years ago. And I was interested in starting to document the whole process of street art and how, you know, how do you create, you know, like...

any sort of like art on the street, like, you know, giant portraits. I'm mostly interested in two portraits, you know, large portraits, you large murals. I wasn't that interested about like, you know, throw-ups and tags and lettering. That was not my main focus. I know, you know, most of them, but it's like my main attraction was like, you know, big portraits. So I started to document

few artists many many years ago one one of them was Man 1 and we just stay in touch over the years and and you know you click with people you know yeah I mean it's like with yeah

It's like a marriage, right? Like like create like like a creative team is like a marriage. If the chemistry isn't there, you know, nobody's nobody's happy, you know.

Yeah.

Exactly. mean, over the course of my, I would say career, I met so many people, but you click with specific people and you don't click with other people. We stay in touch with other people, with marijuana, we clicked many years ago and we tried to do other projects. Remember like, we remember when we went to the island, the military island together, because

Yeah.

Yeah.

He had this project about just painting something, you know, in the military base. So, so we got, we got connected. you know, we, we try, you know, we try on doing different projects until like, it was like this year, last year when we did Pomona Pomona was like last year. Yeah. Okay. So we stay in touch over the years always. And until like, you know, we found the opportunity to work together on a large project.

Pomona was last year and then this year we did El Monte.

And he called me up and says, do you want to document this big project I'm doing in Pomona? It's going to take a few days. And I'm like, yeah, I mean, I like, I like the art. I like your style. You know, I like the process. I, we did the first documentary about the Pomona project last year and it took like, was it 15 days? Maybe 10 days, 12 days. Yeah. So.

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, something like that. Yeah. And you know, one of the things is I worked with other videographers obviously over the years and you know, everyone has a different attitude and a different style and all this. You know, some, I worked with a lot of very good ones, but sometimes, you know, like Jaco just said, it's about having a connection and being able to click with somebody because

I've worked with some videographers who are super fast paced and they're like, they're great at what they do, but they wanna be in and out as quickly as possible and then move on to the next thing. And that's cool, I respect that, that's not a problem. But some of the projects that we do or that I do, you can't do in one day or two days, sometimes it takes weeks. And Jaco is just...

I mean, that's why I love working with him because he has this like patience. Like, don't know where he gets it from. I don't know if it's an Italian thing or what, but he has some kind of patience that, you know, and everything rolls off him like no problem, like whatever. Something catastrophic could happen and he'll be like, no problem. We'll figure it out. And his cool like mannerism and just his like easy going, easy goingness, I guess you could say.

I'm attracted to that because I'm kind of the same way. Like I don't like to, I'm not a perfectionist. I'm not like, no, we're going to do this a hundred million times. You know, it's like, Hey, we got what we got. Let's make it work. You know, even, mean, on this video down to the last, the last minute, like there was certain things that we were just like, well, we're not going to, guess we're not going to have time to shoot that. So, well, big deal. And then like a couple of days later,

the opportunity would open up and we're like, hey, you know what, let's go do it. We have time right now and we'd go do it. And it got done. And so it was like, you know, it was, he's very easy to work with. And that's why I enjoy it. And he doesn't mind being out there. Like when we were doing that mural for the city of El Monte, I mean, he was there. I think he was there more than my assistant. know, like we were there from...

Yeah.

sun up until sundown because he was shooting on the roof and at night and everything. And so, you know, he likes to really go really, really beyond the call of duty. And because, you know, he enjoys it. can honestly tell that he enjoys what he's doing and he's good at it, you know? So there was a lot of stuff that we shot that I wasn't sure how I was going to look, but I just trusted him. Like he knows what he's doing, you know?

He would say, yeah, I'm just gonna shoot it this way. I'm gonna shoot it that way. And I just let him do it. And then you can see the results yourself on the video. So yeah, it was...

Yeah.

Yeah, you could have said like, what the heck you're doing, no, you trust me. It's a process. mean, it's not that it's like, you know, thank you for the patient. I'm actually not a very patient person. And it's definitely not a...

I did see Jacko blow up one time. Remember that on the roof? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we did.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm not like you cannot associate Italian with patient. They're like two different things. Italian, they just like, you know, scream at each other for whatever reason. So it's like patient is not that it's like I do like the process, you know, it's like it's a it's a craft arts project, you know, so it doesn't it doesn't make it doesn't make sense to me to just shoot something.

We'll get there. I want to hear that story. Go ahead, Jaco.

Right.

That's true.

in and out in one day and just kind of like, you know, if it doesn't get done in one day, that's it. It's like, if it takes 10 days, I will spend two days to do it. Just like, it's a matter of like a troubleshooting, you know, just like try to capture the elements that you need to just create a story. So sometimes things go sideways, you know, nothing goes by plan. you...

Right.

That's the process, you know, that's the process of filmmaking kind of to troubleshoot and work around. So you need patience for that, you know, and you got, personally don't aim for perfection, you know, because perfection doesn't give you any sort of style. You know, it's like, you know, human are not perfect. So making things perfect, you know, it's not, it's not going to be, it's not going to do you any good. So I'm more aiming for like.

Right, exactly.

flow, know, something that tells something, you know, a story is not perfect, but if I can manage to kind of like, you know, ship it together in a way that you can receive it and then you can, you can make it whatever you want of it, you know, then I've done my job, you know, I just kind of like create it. And I think like art is similar, you know, if, you know, if you do art and you're completely perfect, you would be a fucking printer, you know, just like, you know,

Right, exactly.

Using AI and shit, right? Yeah, the human element, right? Like you wanted to feel organic and human and.

Yeah, it's just like, well, what's the reason, you know?

Yeah, exactly. It's every, every person has a sort of like, you know, imperfection that imperfection makes your style, you know, and it's like, it's, know, you should not aim for perfection or you should not aim for like, you know,

Yeah. Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah, my favorite, my favorite blue jeans are not perfect. You know I mean? Wabi Sabi, baby, you know, like, like, you know. Yeah, yeah. Well, but yet, right. mean, for people who are going to take the time to really watch this video and really watch it, they're going to see just how fucking perfect it is. Right, because there's so many.

Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, it's perfect, yeah.

Easter eggs and details and thoughtful choices that just make it really special and fresh and yet like classic, you know, it's an instant classic, I think.

Well, thank you. mean, it's like we, we, we did spend many days and many, many time where we actually, you know, spend our major effort to make it so, you know, just, but, know, it's definitely not perfect, but it's, it's, it's got that vibe of perfection, but, it's not, I mean, it's like, it's, you know, we, just created something that, you know, it kind of like made sense to us and, and,

Yeah.

Well, and to be fair, right? Because Jaco, like, you know, we love our man one. He's the man. And, you know, he's he's Santa. He's the hero. He's the protagonist. He's the graffiti writer. Like, he's the one out there risking it all to deliver the presence. Right. But but but but you made him look so good in the editing bay.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like, because at the end of the day, right? Like you're just like you said, you're running and gunning, you're shooting, you're getting stuff, you're not getting everything you want, or everything you plan to get, you know, but you're trusting the process and you know what you can do in the editing room, like you know, like, okay, yeah, I'm gonna be able to slice and dice this stuff and make make magic out of

Yeah.

VONJAKO (42:06.308)

That's the basic Scott. mean, it's like, you know, the editing is like, it's like for an artist, like before you actually paint something, you already have the picture in your head, you know, you might need certain colors, you need some material, you might have to improvise and use different material, but the pictures in your head. So in my case is like, I have sort of like an image or something, but it's, you know, the editing is kind of like, it's already in my head, but

I'm able to adapt the editing whatever comes my way, know, just like, you know, thinking on my feet and just like, Hey, we didn't get a, you know, a Chevy, let's remove the Chevy. Let's find a way editing wise that works without the Chevy. So here we go. You know, like, you know, some other people would be like, we don't have a car. Okay. We can't do the video, you know, it's

Yeah.

Well

Well, here's something interesting that I, you know, realized in this whole process that I wasn't aware of before, because even though I've been filmed and I've worked with other videographers, like I've never worked like this closely with one. Like I've never, you know, talked about the whole storyline and the shots and this and that. And even though I wasn't in the editing room, you know, he was there doing it. But,

The thing that was pretty cool to me was obviously being a painter, my whole thing when I'm painting, it's not, more isn't always better, right? So like, if you keep adding colors, it doesn't make it better, right? Well, I kind of thought that way about the filming process. And so we were shooting certain things.

And I thought, okay, we got it. That's good. That's good enough, right? But, you know, four minutes plus on a video is a really long time that, you know, I wasn't aware of. from Jocko's, yeah.

Well, hold on, hold on, hold on. I don't mean interrupt, but just to be clear, the song is about four minutes long, right? So you knew the video had to be like about four minutes and that's like, that doesn't sound like a lot, but it turns out you got to shoot hours and hours and days and days to get that four minutes, right?

right. Right.

Right, exactly. And the thing about it that was amazing to me was we would shoot things and I was like, well, we got it. We already got that shot. And then Jock will be like, no, let's add this. Let's go shoot this and let's add that. And then we kept adding stuff to it and they were, know, split seconds that were in the final edit, know, half a second in the final edit or whatever. But somehow him adding more made it better.

And it was because he knew where to add it and he knew how to add it. it really made like, when I first saw the first edit, was like, this is it. We're done. This is awesome. It looks great. I was so happy. I was so happy with it. And then Juggles was like, well, I think it needs this. And I'm like, what are you talking about? So from his first edit to the final, my God, it's like another movie.

Right.

Not so fast.

Yeah.

Hahaha!

You know, it's totally different. And it's just like amazing how you can keep adding these little scenes, adding these little shots and then editing them in such a way where it does tell the story better. And so for me, it was kind of different from when I paint. That's why I was trying to make that reference was that, you know, so that's what I learned about this videography stuff that he was doing was just that he kept.

adding certain elements, know, spicing it up with certain little things. And wow, what a difference like a tiny little edit can make on the flow of something, you know?

Yeah.

Well, and by the way, you know, to, that point, as, as somebody who has seen the video and loves the video for many reasons, you know, it, it's like, I can see the conscious intentional choices that you may jockel around certain things. And I know some of them, some of the choices were made obviously, you know, in the design phase, so to speak. And then some of the choices were made obviously in the editing bay.

Yeah.

So like, so for example, right, the the when in Santa's apartment. Right. Like the lighting, like like like he's like he's got like he's in a pit pad, like, I mean, like it's like it's it's like it's like it's like artist studio. It's not like, I mean, he's living rough and, whatever, like he ain't, you know, like he ain't fucking, you know, pimping out necessarily. But but but he's chilling, you know, and and the lighting in the room.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

In it connotes right that he's like cool. He's chilling like whatever but then and so that was like whether that was a choice you guys made together or something whatever but that was a choice but then in editing bay for me You jockel made a choice because there's this one scene where where Santa's waking up. He's like getting up and the

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

the there's like in his sunglasses are like the red and blue or the red and green lights like reflecting in the sunglass. And I was like, that is an intentional choice. That just is so it feels so like honest and authentic and organic. But it but I know that it was literally a choice you made is like, yeah, that's the that's the cut right there, you know, and and it's that level of nuance and layer and, and just thoughtfulness that makes this so special.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yep.

You know, and it's throughout the video. It's not just that scene, but like that's one scene that jumped out of me, you know.

Yes.

I mean, it's like, you know, pay attention to some small details and just put it in there. It's like, you know, editing is mostly like, kind of like manipulate time. So you kind of, you know, if you find the slots and to just like make the story, you know, go much, you know, flow better. just like, you know, certain, certain details, everything will, you know, will, will go much better. It's like, you don't want to over crank the video with.

you know, nonsense, but you want to put stuff where, you know, there is space and it works with the flow. And it's all about timing and flow and sort of like giving like, you know, a beat and, and, and, and, and, and, and a sort of like a poetic wave with the song, because the song is dictating the vibe anyway, you know? So it's a very, a rhythmic song is a very, it's like filled with words, you know.

Right.

Right.

Yes, yes.

So you're watching a video and there is no way you're going to visually interpreter, you know, every single word with a visual because then it's. But yeah, but it's like physically you cannot assimilate. It's like, would be like a lyric video. You know, it's like the fracture of a time you have to understand what you say and what you see. You know, it's like a very fast picture book that goes, you know, too fast. So.

that would be a multi-million dollar project.

you

Right, right, right.

Mm-hmm.

It would be difficult to create the story, but in this case, it's like, you know, it's more about the vibe than the song and the story of Santa Claus and what he does. And the music is just like soundtrack in this case.

Well, and by the end and you know, the choices, you so many choices, so many intentional choices and so many Easter eggs and like, like nuance to it. And you know, man, what I mean, you know, I know this a lot of people might know this, but, for those people who don't like you found it and ran a art gallery called crew West gallery.

You know, right downtown and gallery row in downtown LA on Winston Avenue between Maine and fourth or fourth or fifth in off Los Angeles there. And, yet you are shouting out to that history in this video, you know, and people may not know that, but these intentional choices and these layers for the people who know, they know it's like inside baseball shit that is like so layered. I love it. I love it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, you know, one of the things obviously is it's called Christmas in LA. So like it had to be authentic LA stuff. had to be, you know, if you, if you've grown up in LA or been here for any amount of time, we needed to show the landscape, know, but we wanted to show not the glamorous side. We wanted to show, you know, what everyday people see, you know, the real side, you know, we were walking down alleys and

The real side, that's right.

different parts of downtown LA and Hollywood and Venice and stuff. But we were taking the, not the senior crowd, not the Hollywood route. Yeah, were doing the real stuff. then we wanted to capture, my goal was number one, to show LA in its true light and how I know it and how I've experienced it.

No, no, you were taking the yeah, yeah, right. You were taking the Hollywood route or the yeah, the bullshit route. That's right.

and how many people know LA. Secondly, I wanted to be authentic in terms of a graffiti writer, right? Like the tools that a graffiti writer uses, stickers, markers, stencils, spray paint, you know, all that stuff. I wanted it to be in the video. And then, you know, we wanted to make it fun. And then also as part of all that was find locations

where we can give these shout outs to some of the incredible artists that are from LA. And we chose specific streets because of the murals that were there, whether they're murals that have been there for decades or they're murals that just went up. Like we walked, we were in front of the Valenzuela mural by Robert Vargas that just went up a couple months ago. Like while we were filming this, that mural went up. So we were like, we gotta shoot it.

Yeah.

iconic, it's going to be iconic. But then I'm also walking in front of, know, murals, you know, just all over the place, you know, and just showing, showing the history through through the eye of the of the everyday person, you know. And like I said earlier, you know, Santa's walking, right. And if you if you are from Los Angeles and are a working class person,

in Los Angeles, you probably take the bus, you probably take the train and you probably walk. And this is not a Hollywood version of, you you driving down the street on the nicest streets and the nicest locations or whatever. This is kind of like, you know, you're walking the real, the real LA, you know? So that was, that was the goal and the intention behind it. I think, you know, I, I think we did, we did good. I was really happy with it. Obviously I threw some of my murals in there too. So.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, as you as you should. I mean, but it's not it's not just straight up L.A. It's straight up hip hop. It's straight up graffiti like like like there's just levels to it in terms of the authenticity, you know, and and it's so authentic that the that the cost of that. Right.

You know?

Yeah.

is that people from New York or Chicago or Miami ain't probably ain't going to get it. You know what mean? They'll get it like they'll see like they'll like it because it's dope and it's cool. But they're just there's like some like Angelino's are going to really love this because I think they're going to know the truth of it. If that makes sense. You know what mean? Yeah.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it's made in LA for LA. know, I think that's kind of how I think we approached it. But yeah, I mean, was, you know, I think every, like you said, every shot was very intentional. Like we didn't just, you know, look at that's cool. Let's do that. you know, I saw this on social media. Let's go check out that place.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Right, that's right, that's right, that's right.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah, it is.

Right. Well, Jaco Jaco as the director for this, mean, talk about some of the unique challenges because I mean, this is not your first time, you know, at the rodeo. I mean, you've done lots of stuff over the years, big budget stuff, low budget stuff, music videos, corporate stuff, whatever live, you know, whatever. But like everything is unique. Everything is, you know, bespoke. talk about some of the very kind of unique.

you

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

idiosyncratic challenges that you face with this project as direct.

yeah, I mean, it's like, you know, I think like the first challenge, I mean, is like, like, like you said, I've done a lot of like different variety of different things, like, you know, large scale crew to like a lots of like one man band, you know, in this case, like, you know, with my experience of, know, kind of like running and gunning and doing things on my own, you have one advantage that you're like pretty much invisible because

You know, it's like one thing is show up somewhere with 20 people and one thing is show up somewhere with you and a guy is like, you know, and nowadays with, you know, with the world that is like, everybody is a, is a social media influence and everybody's a camera operator with their phone. It's like, you know, no, no, no, no one would actually pay attention to you, but

Said that I mean you still have to kind of like the first the first challenge here is to wherever you show up You know you you don't want to just kind of like, know You don't want to just like flash your camera left and right and you have santa claus so I think our first our first challenge was like we didn't know how things would you know people would react to this, you know because like, know, you see a lot of crazy things in la but

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, I also seen like things going sideways really bad. So, you know, I think that was one challenge, but we, you know, we tried to approach it, you know, in a very, you know, in a very natural way. It's just kind of like, you know, we go with the flow and just use our experience, you know, shooting a lot, know, man one has been, you know, painting on the street a lot. So it kind of like, we have our radar, you know.

Yeah.

to know where to go and where not to go. The other side, was like, I think like one big challenge for me was how to film the whole rooftop sequence, because the man wanted to have those MC kind of like projected. We had this idea of projecting things somewhere.

you

So we were still in the process of figuring out where to project and we needed to do a night. So likely we had this rooftop area we could access, but I didn't know how things will actually end up reacting because you're projecting a large light in front of, on a building somewhere. Maybe somebody is going to get pissed off.

Well, tell them the story. We did get somebody that was checking us out. Uber?

huh.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we did. I mean, it's like we went on the rooftop and you know, luckily everything worked out but but you know, we started having people kind of like, you know, playing with us with laser, you know, where we were actually projecting things on the wall, you know, and, and think about we were doing time lapse, which is a very time consuming process. So you basically having like an animation of the of the, you know, the drawings of men one.

kind of like being projected one frame at a time onto a building. So time lapse, we just take one picture every six seconds, something like that. So it was very time consuming. So we were there for quite a long time that night. And so, yeah, we had people just kind of playing with us and just kind of like, just.

Pointing a what was like a green laser, know, just like it's just it Yeah, like it was snipers and and you know, we got some security people from the other building kind of like, know, they were I think they were like, you know, alerted to what we were doing because we were We were starting to see all a bunch of like flashlights on top of other, you know building like checking out what we're doing So we definitely were not under the radar here Yeah

All right. Yeah.

Yeah, luckily they weren't snipers.

Flash in.

You know, one thing, one

Yeah. mean, what, where was that downtown? What building is I mean, I was going to ask you about that. Cause I mean, like obviously like what people maybe don't appreciate about graffiti artists is that they're, have to be incredible athletes, like on a certain level, because I mean, if you're going to get up, you've got in like a stunt man kind of adrenaline, kind of like a extreme athlete kind of thing. Cause you got to climb, you've got to get up high. You got to risk your life, you know, and, and it's crazy, right? Like, you know, there's an athleticism and a physicality.

to it and a danger to it that other art forms don't have. in this video, obviously you respect that, you honor that, you tell that story. Santa's climbing this building, hopping over to tag it, whatnot on the roof. Like what building was that? Where was that?

Yeah.

Well, we can't give away our resources, but we were in the, around the eighth street and area, flower area, figaroa, kind of around the area.

Right, right, right, right, right. Keep your secrets. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. We can tell that.

Area 8th Street area. Right, right.

Yeah.

So you know that the area is already kind of like, there's some trouble there. You know, it's like, it's got a history of like something going on. So we were definitely kind of like, you know, being spotted doing this because we had a large projector. He was like, you know, basically painting on walls on top of the roof. So even if we had permission and whatever, it's like people will have called the cops on us in three seconds because like, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And

Yeah. we saw choppers coming around us. We were like, maybe someone called the choppers on us. I don't know. you know, one of the things that, that, that I, you know, just, just to kind of go on a little tangent here, every time that I've worked with Jaco, he's always wearing black. mean, black everything, black shoes, socks, you know, jacket, coat, hat. And I'm talking about, we, we've worked in the middle of summer.

Ha ha ha ha!

You

in a hundred degree weather and he's wearing all black, you know? And I can't, and I always ask him like, you know, I never got it. I never got what he's wearing. Like, you know, okay, he likes black. I get it. But come on dude, every time. Well, I finally on this shoot realized his genius. I, black, apparently when you're shooting something, when you're filming, apparently black is camouflage.

You

It's chic, man. He's Italian. OK, like it's chic.

Yeah.

you

Yeah

Yes.

Because he was able to, because he wears black, he's able to get away with a lot of shit. And I didn't realize that. So when he's holding a camera in the middle of the day and it's like a $5,000 camera and he puts it against his chest, you can't see it. You can't see the black camera against his black jacket. And

Yeah.

Good thing he's not a sniper, because it could be a rifle, and you wouldn't see that either. Yeah, all right.

No, just...

So people look at him and they're not gonna jack him because they don't know what he's holding. Then the other thing is he's always wearing these hoodies or jackets. And I was like, why is he? Well, guess what? He carries all kinds of shit in those pockets. has, I will be in the middle of doing something. I'd be like, shit, we need some tape. And he'd be like, I got some black tape right here. And then he pulled out the black tape. And then I'd be like, fuck, I forgot a blade. He goes, I got a blade right here.

Right.

You

He had everything, like everything in those jackets, you know? So, and anybody out there who wants to become a professional videographer, filmmaker has to understand the power of wearing all black.

Amazing.

you

And hoodie by all black hoodie, black hoodies, but black, all black everything.

You forgot the gloves, Yeah. Yeah.

Long sleeve, everything.

yeah, no, he's got black gloves. He's got black gloves on all the time. And the special gloves, the ones that you can actually, you don't have to take off to use your phone. So here's the other thing. This guy was shooting with his camera and his, what do call that stabilizer thing on there? On the, his gimbal. He's shooting with his camera on the gimbal. And in the other hand, he's shooting with his iPhone to get behind the scenes.

Hmm. yeah, hi tech shit. Hi tech love

Yeah.

Yeah, a gimbal, you know, like a gimbal's coming. Yeah.

Gimbal?

This is

He's getting his own behind the scenes. It's like...

while smoking while smoking.

I mean, yeah, yeah. Well, I smoke. Yeah, I don't smoke. But you know, you got you got to you got to understand it's like, you know, the whole black dressing and also, you know, I'm a big fan of wearing gloves because really when you're like in those situations, you're all dressed in black with the cameras black and wearing gloves. Nobody's going to fuck with you because like because like, why am I going to, you know, you know, why am I going to disturb this guy that is God?

You know? yeah.

No, no.

black gloves it's like you know what I mean it's like yeah it's like why is he wearing gloves

Yeah.

Might be a ninja, you don't

No, no fingerprints.

Clearly he's a professional don't fuck with him.

Yeah. So that there's something to that. that's, that's, that's what I learned.

Yeah, yeah. It's either a serial killer or like a professional. What do do?

Right, right. man, man. man. Well, you know, listen, guys, I mean, you know, like, you know, I'm looking at the clock here. And I mean, you know, I know somebody said they got a, know, they got like an hour. We've gone an hour. Like I we could talk three hours about this project. I you know, and I want to keep going. But, you know, if we have to wrap up, you know, I want to make sure each of you have the time or the opportunity.

Yeah, exactly. That was awesome.

to say what hasn't been said, it's to say something that you want people to know about this very special project. And, know, Jaco, you know, I'll give you the first go around here. like, like what, know, like, how are you feeling about this project? What do you, know, what do want people to know about this project? Because it's so special.

I I want people to know, I think it's like, I just want people to just kind of like translate, maybe appreciate what we're doing if they like it. It's like, enjoy the video. I think it's a way for us to show really like,

Share it! Yeah, right, right, share it.

sort of like a real LA is like, you know, I think between me and, you know, and man why we have, we have like a wide knowledge of the city, you know. So it's always good to kind of like show places that they're not, you know, the stereotype, you know, that you see in every single video, you know. And I also think about not having a car, I think it did, it did an advantage to us because like seeing LA from a car,

Yeah.

It's sort of a cliche, you know, you want to see it from the street because that's where the people are like, you know, real people are. So I think that. You just did a good favor on, on, on, on our side to just show that side of the, of the city. and, I don't know. What does that want to say? I mean, it's like, you know, it's like, I hope we did a great job. I hope you, you know, it's, fine. You know, it's.

Yeah, right. Yeah.

It's a, mean, one thing I can say is like, you if I, if I, I showed this to, I showed this video to my girlfriend's, some other friend is like when people that are not into the art, you know, to the art vibe, into the street art culture, you know, they enjoy this kind of stuff. And then I think we did a good job. You know, it's like, you know, if, if you, if you, if you showed this to somebody that is not specifically into this just.

Yeah, right.

you know, just into this genre, into this culture, and they enjoy and they think it's like, this is great, this is fun, this is, then, you know, I think that mission accomplished, I think. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Right on. Right on. Yeah. Now that's, that's, that's, that's right on. mean, cause that, that speaks to the, authenticity, the truth of it, right? Like, cause the humanity of it, right? Because if people, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, mean, exactly. know, exactly. It's the human side. I I think, I think the goal for us was to put like the, you know, the, the, the, the human, you know, the, the human element into, into the video, not just like create some like, you know, sterile sort of like, you know, blended video that anybody

Yeah.

Yeah.

We did a hip hop video with no guns, no bitches, no drugs.

anybody can do.

Exactly.

the way I was disappointed about that part but anyway that's that's a personal thing I'm sorry

Right, I mean...

It's probably the first hip-hop video without any of that stuff.

Exactly.

I was like, where's the booty? There's no booty. Santa's got the booty in his bag

Yeah, no booty.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Well, listen, mean, man, before, before you take the mic here, I just want to respond to Jaco's point because back in 2019, you know, not relart hosted a conference and not relart conference for creators. And one of the panels was how to pitch your idea in Hollywood. And we had the Emmy award winning, Jorge Gutierrez on the panel with, with the Hollywood executive, Channing Dungey. And I remember they were talking about.

how to pitch ideas you know in hollywood and i think it was i think it was chanting that said you know a great story a great movie a great idea you know is is a window into a world that that people don't know maybe right but but but but that window is also a mirror because they see themselves in that world

Mm-hmm.

Right? Even though, and I think Jaco, to your point, like that's why the video is so great because the, yes, it's a window into this world that people don't know, I E L A, but they still can see themselves in it because it turns out it's a human story because whether you live in LA or Chicago, wherever New York, whatever, like you can, you see yourself in this very real world, right? this very human world. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Absolutely. I concur. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Yeah, man, you you you nailed it. But man, but man, I mean, what do you I mean, you you you created all the key art for the song last year. Christmas in L.A. By the way, shout out to Connie Price and the Keystones. mean, they're the ones that produced the and created the music and and and and and brought in the emcees. And I mean, shout out Connie Price. mean, big, big, big ups. Big love to Connie.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

But, but you know, so you created the kind of the key art for the, for the track Christmas in LA. And then, you know, you had a year, you know, obviously, you know, what's great about this project is that we, you could revisit it every year and kind of do different stuff. And so as you said earlier, we didn't, know, didn't have the time to do the video last year. So you do the video this year. And so you came on as like, you know, I don't know, creative director, like, because it's your art, right? So was like, okay.

how are you gonna bring this art to life? How are you gonna bring this story to life? And as you said earlier, it was sort of like, well, let's do an animation. Let's take the illustrations. Like, let's create some animation out of it. But then as you got into that, you realized, no, no, no, no, we can't do that for all these reasons. It's limited. I gotta tell the story as like creative director. And then it was like a blank canvas, right? Like you didn't know what, you know, like, okay, now what?

And and and being a born and raised Angelino being a OGL a graffiti artist, you know, being a professional artist, having stayed, studied fine art at Loyola Marymount, you know, I mean, you then had this creative problem to solve. And so, you know, and boy, did you solve it. But I mean, it's like, what do you how are you feeling about it now? What do want people to know about it now? Because because you you you brought this this this love to the project that was very personal.

Right.

Yeah, I mean, for sure. You know, I just want people to enjoy it. I people to laugh. I want people to have fun with it. want people to, obviously, you know, the whole point is to bring Christmas cheer, right? That's the whole point is like, like that's what Christmas is about. It's about, you know, bringing that joy to the world, right? And so that's at the end of the day, that's what we want with this video. Now we did.

you know, a whole bunch of other stuff in the video that, that will, will cater to hip hop heads. It will cater to graffiti heads. It'll cater to people who love Los Angeles. and that's great. You know, obviously you want all those people to enjoy all the, the, you know, like you said, the Easter eggs in there and, and all the, scenarios we, we, we talk about in the, the video. But, at the end of the day, I just want people of, of,

from anywhere, from everywhere to enjoy it and to be able to like play it and watch it and have fun. And at the end of the day, that's what the music was about. And to me, when I first heard the song, I loved it and it was so unique and so special that I thought the video had to be of the same caliber. So I think we pulled it off. I'm happy with it.

You know, know a lot of people that I've showed it to are happy and like Jocko said, if your wife or your girlfriend like it, then you've done something right. Cause that's the hardest people to please. But you know, the other part of it too, just on a, on a, production side of things. Cause obviously me being, the first time I've ever been a creative director on a, on a music video. I had no idea how many behind the scenes things happen.

You

Yeah.

that are crucial to making something like this a reality. The people who I asked for tons of favors, accessing their buildings, people who let me get a lot of props, like physical props that I got to use, like for example, the boombox, thanks to my voice, Saints One, who's a boombox head and...

Yeah.

Yeah.

Shout out Saints One.

And he was like, cause I asked him for a boom box and he could just give me any boom box. He gave me his baddest brand new, like he had just gotten that boom box. Like he hadn't even enjoyed it yet. And he gave it to me. He's like, dude, here use this one. And he didn't know what it was for. I didn't tell him. I, you know, he's going to know now what it's for, but, but there's even an Easter egg for him in the video of Santa sitting in front of one of his murals with the boom box.

Hahaha!

Yeah.

Ha!

rise.

And so shout out to Saints One for, for, you know, trusting me with, with that boom box from the eighties. And then, you know, just a lot of people behind the scenes who, who just helped us, you know, with certain locations. you know, I, there's a huge list of people to thank and, know, I thank them personally because, know, there's just too many to name, but it really takes a lot of people, even though me and Jocko were the ones there every day. we had.

you people behind the scenes who were facilitating so much for us and made it easy and, you know, and like with no budget. So it was all done out of love and it's our love for the city. And I hope that love comes across in the video.

you

Well, it does. It does. And, you know, I mean, the people that supported this project or the organizations and, just whatever, like, like to be able to just give you the freedom, you know, because like, that's the other thing too, right? It's like lot of clients or corporations or whatever they want to, they want to hire artists to do something dope and then they want to micromanage it. And it's like, no, no, no, no. Let's just bring, you know, just bring the artists together and trust them.

Right. Give them the goal. Show them, show them what you need. Tell them what you need and want and what the goal is. And then just let them go do what they do because at the end of the day, like that's how magic happens. And, and I think that that comes true. It comes through and it's true about this project because you guys, you know, you came together, you had creative freedom and you made it happen guys. And, know, hats off to you. Much love. Congrats. you know, you should just obviously, I think as I know you

Yeah.

probably likely are so proud and so excited about this project because it's the it's the right thing at the right time. And you guys just knocked it out of the park, you know, and, you know, so kudos hats off. It's Christmas, guys. Christmas in L.A., you know, hey, hey, hey, ho, ho, And by the way, I have a question, though. I have a question. Whose apartment was that? Was that your old studio, man? One.

Exactly, yeah. Exactly. We can't, yeah.

Jingle, jingle, jingle.

come on. No sources will be revealed. Yeah, so,

yeah we can say that right location yeah location we don't say yeah it's like who knows knows that's it exactly

Yeah, yeah, don't comment, don't comment.

No comment. You can't know Santa's lair, come on.

Yeah, exactly.

That's right. That's right. That's right. Yeah. If you if you know we have to kill you.

Jaco will do that.

With my gloves,

Men in Black.

By the way, that sign in the back, graffiti artists wanted, call this number. This is genius.

Yep. Awesome. I'm glad you caught that.

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I caught it. All right. They just again, those Easter eggs, those layers. I mean, it just it speaks to it, you know.

mean, when you have no money, the best production design is just go to the real shit. It's like, you you don't have to build it up. You just go to the real stuff. Yeah.

have to fake it. That's right.

Keep it real, just make sure that the lighting and the audio is good.

Yeah, exactly. You don't need props. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, guys, congratulations. By the time people hear this video or hear this podcast, the video will have dropped. It will be available on Vivo. It will be available on YouTube via Vivo. Of course, they can go to your website, christmasnla.com to see the video as well.

It was all real.

but it's going to be all over the place and you know, I just, I'm so excited for you. I can't wait to hear, know, what people really think and say as this goes more public. mean, it's going to have it sort of, you know, so-called world premiere. thanks for our boy Evan over at LA in the, a minute, next Monday, I believe December 9th or whatever the, is that? What is that? What is, yeah, December 9th and people are going to be able to discover this thing. and I think love it as much as I do.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so anyway guys, hats off, congrats and well done.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, yeah, we hope this thing is going to go viral.

Thank you. Word up.

I tell you what, you know, it, if, if truth, cuts cuts through, then this is going to be a, you know, this is definitely cutting through cause this, know I to see a, a video, a music video that just rings so authentic and have so much integrity is rare and, and you guys nailed it. So well done. Congrats.

Thank you, thank you. Jingle, jingle, jingle.

Thank you. Jingle, jingle, jingle.

Django Django Django. You're usually every Christmas I go by home bug because I'm a bit of a bit of a Scrooge, you know, with the commercialization, the commercialization, right of Christmas. But man, you were saying, you know, something earlier about the joy of the holiday. And actually, to Max says it in the track, he says, who cares about your bank account with your when you're with family, you know,

Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

Right, yeah.

And that's exactly what the Christmas is about. It should be about family and friends and joy and, you know, fuck all the other shit. And you know what? Like this is this is I think the joy of the song and this and this track in this video because you're bringing the joy you're bringing the truth of the real meaning of Christmas in L.A.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Amen.

Yes. Amen. All right.

right. All right, guys. Well, listen, you said somebody said they had to be gone in an hour. We've been an hour 20. And so you know, thanks for hanging out with me. This has been super special, super dear to me. And, you know, keep up keep it rolling guys. What's next? What are you going to do next? Come on. What's going on?

It's okay.

You're welcome.

what's next? mean, what we got?

I don't know, whatever it is, whatever it is, I bet your Jack was wearing black, all black.

Absolutely, yes.

I probably won't be wearing another Santa outfit for a while, but he will definitely be wearing black all the time.

I mean, it's like...

Well, everybody has their uniform, right? Like, like, and you know, it's like, yeah, yeah. So, you know, Jaco's got his and you know, man, I've seen you around town. You got your own uniform and well, we won't get into that. But anyway, guys, we have a beautiful night. Thanks for coming through.

Right.

You

Alright, peace.

Thank you, thank you Scott. Thank you, man. Bye bye, bye.

Peace.

Later, right on. Jingle jingle.