It was also a little bit of a challenge because historically, in hip-hop videos, you have a lot of guns, and obviously smoking and stuff, and we don't want to push the narrative of using guns. ” That was the music video that we first paired with “Boyfriend.” There's also a video called “ Fuck It Off ,” by Cdot Honcho. One was from an artist named Shabazz, and the song's called “ If You Need It. Was there a particular rap video that you studied for the gestures? I for sure saw the Kodak Black money spread on the arms in the “Boyfriend” video.īurton : There were two that I had in mind. We had cue cards in the background he told the people to stand a certain way and then I was behind the cameraman, telling him, “This is the type of shot I'm looking for.” When we got everything we needed, I edited the whole thing together, and out came a cool little piece of art. Ryan organized some other buddies to choreograph where you could stand and how the art direction should look. He shot the video, I edited the whole thing, but Ryan chose the spot that we should shoot at.
I stood by him and told him the shots that I wanted. I had another friend, Jarod Neal, who had a better cinematic camera than me. They were all in the area, and they had the exact look that we needed to pull the video off. Most of the people in the video, they were all friends or acquaintances, and it was kind of like a nice family reunion. What roles did both of you have in bringing this to life?īurton: I had the idea, and then I showed it to Noah, and then he was the one who had all the friends who were down to do it.
If we can recreate this, except sing the words, this would be so funny.” We were just sitting there, and I was like “Yes, this is hilarious. We took that Big Time Rush “Boyfriend” song, then we held it up next to this other music video, and put the music video on silent. I was thinking about funny stuff, like, “Oh, how funny would it be if there was a hard-looking rap crowd, dancing to a country song.” I always thought that would be so funny.Īnd then I told Noah about it, like a month ago. I had the idea for, honestly, like two or three years. “Meme” is an interesting term, because it's kind of evolved over the years. Ryan Burton: Honestly, it’s hard to describe. When did you decide that you wanted to do this. Then we ended up deciding to go to college together. Then we went to separate high schools, but we still remained friends. We were in a gym class, and then we just kind of stuck together throughout all middle school.
We met when we were in 6th grade, and we went to middle school together. Noah Taitano: Ryan and I have known each other since we were 10 years old.
THE CAMERAMAN MEME FULL
Check out the video below and continue for the full interview.
THE CAMERAMAN MEME SERIES
Before they dropped the third version of the meme series (this time set to Jesse McCartney's “Beautiful Soul”) on Friday, Complex spoke with the creators of the meme: 21-year-old Drexel students Ryan Burton and Noah Taitano. The juxtaposition of the visuals against the sugar-sweet lyrics and production made the video go viral on Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.ĭays later, another version popped up on social media, this time set to Justin Bieber's “Somebody to Love.” The world must have been waiting for another one, because it also went viral. But when you un-mute the video, you're met with the pop stylings of Big Time Rush, the boy band from the now-off air Nickelodeon show of the same name. While a mob of young black men take swigs out of Hennessey bottles, flaunt cash, and make gun gestures with their hands in the background, a few of them step forward to recite lyrics to what most would assume belong to a hard rap song. Twitter account a video simply titled, “When the music video doesn’t match the song.” If you watch the visuals on mute, it looks like your average video pulled together by an aspiring rapper. The day after Christmas, the world was blessed with a belated gift: a new meme.