Behind The Scenes: The White Shadow

BACKSTORY

This weekend we'll be breaking down The White Shadow video. And, essentially everything that went on behind the scenes building up to creating that video. I was always a big fan of Chappelle. Loved his show. Loved his Netflix specials.

If I'm honest, I haven't seen his movies though...

Maybe one of these days. But, that's besides the point. This video was originally supposed to revolve around the use of the N word. Niggas. What have you~

This was partially because of the controversy surrounding Chris Rock allowing Lous CK to casually say nigga. It's been a hot minute, but that was relevant again. And, it had me playing with this idea of white people watching me, and how I felt to it. It was something I struggled with in regards to my own channel too.

The more my work transitioned into things aimed at black audiences, the more people didn't get what I was talking about or doing. My biggest fear for Operation Black Steel was that my, most white audience, wouldn't get it and call me crazy. Kinda like Chappelle. "Stick to the lawyer game commentary."

I was home at Christmas with family, and I rewatched Chappelle's Netflix specials, and it had me thinking about what made him leave in the first place. It was a combination of how white people perceived his work, and the corporations that attempted to compromise his vision and convince him that he was crazy. 

I knew about Aaron's perspective on Chappelle's situation, and then everything just kinda bled together from there. The "White Shadow" was honestly just the name I decided to give it. It felt appropriate to the series, and to the concept. and I'm glad to know a lot of black people gravitated towards that.

THE PROCESS

That said, my biggest fear heading into this video was that, once again, people would think I'm nuts. But, with an exception of a few, a lot of people really got what I was talking about. Something I've noticed when looking at intraracial relations is that a lot of black people's contempt with white people seems to stem from that paranoia. That paranoia is a part of Huey's character. It's a part of Grandad, and so on so forth.

And there's basis behind the paranoia. But it reaches a point where we have to ask ourselves, when are we going to expand the conversation beyond that? When are we, as a community, going to get over this paranoia? Operation Black Steel, as a series, is all about this idea of acknowledging circumstances and moving forward. It's almost supposed to be this reminder that we can't give up. 

THE MUSIC

Unlike last time, there's a bunch more tracks on the pdf file, primarily because there was a lot I wanted to play. A track that I really wanted to mak e it in was "Every Ghetto." It was the track that played at the end of his Netflix special, and Talib Kweli and Rhapsody made a song to. Sadly, I had to cut it out this time, since it didn't fit the mood of what I was saying.

A big part of music in these videos for me, is context. I don't just go "This sounds nice, I'm using it." I like the music playing to have some form of intertextual relation to what I'm talking about. I was asked to feature more U.K artists, so I included J Hus' Common Sense track. The Heart Part 4 was designed to just set the mood for the video. Common Sense worked because I feel like the black paranoia complex is something that should be known universally among black people. Poe Man Dreams, Spaceship, Righteous Minds, etc. It's all meticulously chosen to relate to what is being said, or what is on screen. Pay attention to them, for some intertextual nods.

AFTERMATH

It was cool being reassured that I wasn't alone in feeling this. I made it at the top of the Blackfellas reddit page, so that was cool. And, it was also a nice reminder of how far I'd come. This was the last video I put up before I reached 10'000 subscribers, so it was important too. Cheers to 10'000 more.