Lecrae "Just Like You" Experience

Grammy Nominated Christian Hip Hop Artist, Lecrae just dropped his newest music video "Just Like You".  I had the unbelievable privilege of working on this video thanks to my boy and director, TK McKamy.  This guy is going to explode in the music video world and he let me PA for this shoot.

The experience was quite crazy as the shoot began in Nashville on the Monday of finals week (the last of my college career!).   All of my professors approved me going and this was first proof of this experience being under a Divine blessing.  

I met up with TK and the first task was to paint a "jail" like wall in an old abandoned building where multiple scenes were taking place.

We didn't actually film in jail!

The shoot began early Monday morning and we began getting shots of "Young Lecrae" getting into trouble with one of his Uncles (PRo).  Right before I left for Nashville there was some severely bad pain in my neck going on.  I brought some prescribed pain pills with me and during one of the scenes TK needed a "drug canister".  So I ripped the label off my bottle and this was the one used during the video.

They used my drugs (jk)

From there we went to the gas station location and I had the responsibility of holding the clapboard for each take and sitting right under Lecrae (out of frame) holding the iPad/Clapboard that was playing the music so he could rap along.

The final performance location for the day was back at the abandoned warehouse.   Three shots were done there, the jail scene and two performance scenes, including the yellow triangle one.  Once it got dark the warehouse was pretty spooky as there was no power and the only light we had were the ones used for the scenes.   We didn't wrap until about 12:30am with a call time at 8am the next morning.

Plexiglass to simulate a window

Clapboard Duty

Director TK giving Lecrae some instruction

Day 2 was quite stressful to start the morning as it was pouring rain and all the shots were to be outside. For the first hour, the rain was pretty bad but we were able to pick up some shots.  Thankfully by the time Lecrae arrived, the rain died down.  As soon as the rain stopped however, the cops showed up.  We didn't have the correct street permit to block the road and the cops said we were taking too much space. Jesse the producer, talked them into letting us finish the last few takes and we were on our way.

Snapped a pic with Lecrae while doing his car performance scene

The shoot wasn't done before I had to leave for my flight so I wasn't able to see the last few scenes. But overall this was an incredible experience.  I'm still not 100% sure "what I want to do with my life" but music videos definitely could be a niche as they combine two of my loves.   Working with creative personal like Lecrae and TK was such a career building opportunity and one I'll never forget.  I met Lecrae a couple years ago and he was still the same guy he was before all the fame and exposure he's been getting the past few years.  Being humble and in the spotlight is not something easy and Lecrae does it well and makes his boast in the Lord.   I'm really encouraged to see the impact this video will have on young adults across the U.S. and challenge men to ManUp and show Biblical masculinity to the masses.   Through it all my hope is that people will realize that the Maker is who they live for not themselves.  Creator > Creation

BTS - Filmed with an iPhone

Here's the final edit.

TK doing work on this edit!