THE NEW POPWhere Old Media Meets New Media

As some of you already know, there was some drama on our trip to Austin. Traditionally it is the documentarian’s job follow the Prime Directive. Observe and not interfere. However The New Pop crew (the rule breakers that we are) never followed this guideline. We have jumped in front many a camera, interacted with many an artist, and danced at many a party because we see no separation between you and us. This approach has has served us well so far and in fact defined us. This SXSW trip was the first time that I felt the lack of separation between the camera and the subject got in the way of telling the story. I got pulled right into the middle of the drama and found myself unable to document and intervene at the same time. Not only was this creatively draining, it left a few gaps in the SXSW story that I am now attempting to fill in a factual way. This is the story from my POV and I am attempting to the best of my ability to keep it factual and balanced. You will note that I replaced the name of of the person who did not want to be interviewed with the letter x—.

FACTS:

—- On arrival to Austin (3/18) X— hooked up with a friend that was the ex-boyfriend of Road Team member $trictly Busine$$’ (SB) current girlfriend.
—- On (3/19) Contessa was not happy with the fact that this guest was tagging along without pitching in for gas during the “girls day out”.
—- X— was under the impression that the guest who was a local was actually lending his knowledge of the city, directing the group to local shops etc.
—- Later that night Contessa and X— got into a fight when Contessa accused the guest of not contributing to the parking cost. X— and Contessa parted ways.
—- The following morning (3/20) when X— returned to pick up her belongings, X— went off on Contessa due to the fact that she felt that Contessa overreacted.
—- SB then joined in and an even more heated verbal fight took place between SB and X—.
—- At this point I thought things could get physical and I intervened and was ready to call the whole trip off.

Those are the facts, this is the video.

So after the NYU show I headed backstage to document the post show footage. Nyle was involved in a heartfelt conversation with Naledge from Kidz In The Hall about the industry. As I started to record the vibe was being ruined by someone talking loudly on his cell phone. I turned to see what was going on and if there was anything I could do about it. The first thing I noticed is that this was no Hipster kid who you could just shhhh and get away with. This was Shucky Ducky from the Boot Camp click. I knew that there was a 50/50 chance that if I said something there would be drama. Maybe even violence. So what do I do? Do I let this deep moment get ruined to avoid confrontation? Or do I speak up in the name of art? See video

So last week I posted about the NYU show for our boy Nyle. Show was dope, and one of the reasons was the special surprise performance by Asher Roth. I first shot Asher down in SXSW for ZUNE a few weeks back. I was bummed because I had to give up the footage to the client since they paid for it. So imagine my pleasant surprise to see Asher walk on stage to do a performance for Nyle’s show. Dope.

Also peep the guy who thinks that Kid Cudi got better rhyme skills than Asher. Peter Rosenberg was like “No way”, and so was I. (You can pick up my reaction on the mic). I got much respect for our fellow URB Next 100 artist Kid Cudi, but Asher will rhyme circles around the Kid. In the end the final word went to Asher. See Video

Last night Nyle who is graduating from NYU and is a MC with sick skills put on his last concert at NYU where he brought down the house. We first met Nyle a couple of years back when he reached out to us through New Pop. We knew him as a kid that did music but until last night had no idea what skillz he had. 88 keys, Kidz in the Hall, and many more performed. Nyle had the moxie to close the show. Believe it or not he pulled it off. We documented the entire night and will be showing clips on the blog first and then the full movie on New Pop. In the meantime here is the sick video featuring Nyle that he premiered last night. They used the RED Camera and you got to give props, the concept is dope.

Nyle “Let The Beat Build” from Nyle on Vimeo.