R&B/Hip-Hop
Page: 33
From Charli XCX’s momentum-shifting “Kamala is brat” post to Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar’s “Freedom” serving as her official campaign song, music was integral to Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 bid for the U.S. presidency.
On Election Day (Nov. 5), Vice President Harris returned to her beloved alma mater, Howard University, to observe the election results and spend the historic night at the place where she first ran for office. Though former President Donald Trump would ultimately win the election, Harris still chose to concede and end her campaign with dignity and grace on her undergraduate campus.
To soundtrack both Election Night and the hours leading up to the VP’s concession speech, the Harris campaign selected DJ Chubb E. Swag (born Terrell D. Williams) – another Cali-bred Howard student who has played gigs ranging from Nipsey Hussle tours to the wedding of Vanessa Bell Calloway’s daughter. “I used to be Nipsey Hussle‘s tour DJ years ago, back in 2012 and part of 2013,” he tells Billboard. “We did some important work together and I did one of his last shows before he transitioned into the Crenshaw situation.”
Trending on Billboard
Though his DJ career has brought him to stages around the world, very few gigs can compare to preparing the stage for a sitting Vice President – let alone in the context of one of the most mind-boggling election cycles in U.S. history. Tasked with keeping hope alive during Election Night and curating the mood for a concession speech sure to break the hearts of millions of listeners, DJ Chubb E. Swag turned to the healing power of Black music to tell his own story and Vice President Harris formally ended her campaign. From The Isley Brothers’ “Shout” and Chaka Khan’s “What Cha’ Gonna Do For Me” to Beyoncé’s “America Has a Problem” and Lamar’s “Alright,” DJ Chubb E. Swagg curated a setlist brimming with hope and resistance in the face of complete and utter despair.
In an illuminating conversation with Billboard, DJ Chubb E. Swagg details how he rose to the occasion of emceeing Election Night and the following day, the legacy of Howard DJs and breaking “Swag Surfin” on the storied campus.
What’s your history with Howard?
I went to Howard University from 2008 until around 2013. 2012 was when I started going on tour with Nipsey, after which I had ceased to go to school for a second. I came back for a little when I was done [with the tour] to try and finish, but business started moving so quickly that it was more advantageous for me to start worrying about that instead. In addition, I started building a little DJ family there and teaching kids how to DJ for free. We got a nice little legacy and history of DJs from Howard University, especially over the last 15 years.
When did you find out who won the election? When were you confirmed to DJ these events?
People had an idea of [the loss], as the event was going along, but we knew before we left. I was confirmed that morning to do the event, or the day before honestly. We had been in conversation for a second, but it wasn’t a guaranteed thing. I asked as soon as I found out [about where Vice President Harris would be spending election night]. It had to go through a couple of channels. I got lucky because I was invited to the Vice President’s mansion earlier this year for a celebration of HBCU leaders, and we got a picture together. I’m not gonna say we were on a first-name basis, but she had a nice reference for me just in case somebody asked her about [potential DJs].
The day before the Election, one of the higher-ups got in contact with me and said, “Hey, we heard you’ve been chosen to DJ the event. Can you come set up the day before because they have to do several different sweeps?”
In addition, there was also a completely different watch party that was supposed to be happening at the same time in the gymnasium and they sent all those kids to the yard. The DJ from the gymnasium, DJ K.Dimes, came up to me during the Election Night event and told me that they shut down the stadium. [The Harris team] wanted everybody to get the experience. As soon as he told me that, I made sure he got to get a picture and play a song or two; now he was part of history as well. We try to lift as we climb.
I got confirmed to DJ before her concession speech at 2:00 a.m. on Wednesday. They said they enjoyed my energy and what was going on at the rally, and they wanted me back for the next day. Before they even got any words out, I told them, “Instead of trying to force dancing on this day, can we keep things a little more mellow and can we look to tell more of a story?” They were okay with it, and I had to send in a playlist the day before.
I put about 150 extra songs on the playlist. I sent over nearly 500 songs in total — you’re potentially playing for a seven-hour period. As a DJ, there is no “travel light,” you gotta pack everything.
How much did the decision of the election influence the kind of set you created going into the concession speech yesterday?
We had an idea that things were not right when they started playing the CNN video and she was already down like 80 points. There were seeds of doubt being sown at that moment. People were still hopeful and resolute because they knew what happened in 2020 with a lot of states [going] blue later on, but it really felt like an uphill battle.
I wanted to go in and tell a story about perseverance with the music. I wanted to tell a story about making a way out of no way. My Election Night set was a little more energetic due to the circumstances, and the following day had to be a bit more mellow. I still got some energetic records in there, but it was definitely different.
How did you understand your role and responsibility as the literal master of ceremonies preparing the crowd for an emotional and historic concession speech?
Have you ever buried a relative? It’s honor and it’s duty, but at the same time, it’s extreme sadness, heartbreak, gut-wrenching, all the superlatives you hear in the movies.
I have so much respect for Kamala [Harris], because she said, “Win or lose, I’m going down with the gang. I’m coming back home. Win or lose, I’m talking to my people and I’m talking to them at the place where everything first started.” I more than empathize with that. I wanted to make sure her transition, whether it was in or out, was met with nothing but love.
This Howard thing… people talk about it abstractly, but it’s real. She and I are both Howard students from California. We had to come from a long way to get where we are. We’re doubly connected. Outside of the exposure, I wanted to be there to make sure my sister was good. I wanted to make sure she was okay. She fought her life out for the last 100 or so days for us. When everybody else was telling her what to do and when she was doing everything in her power to make something shake, nobody had her back. So, I had to make sure we had her back.
On X, you wrote, “We use music to tell a story. Glad I could include mine.” What were the parts of your specific story that you were plugging into the setlist?
One of the first songs I got off that day was “Changes” by 2Pac, and one of the verses starts off with “I see no changes, all I see is racist faces/ Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races.” I started off preaching. Then, I played Chaka Khan’s “What Cha’ Gonna Do For Me?” and Hall & Oates’ “I Can’t Go for That.” A lot of those are self-explanatory, like, personally, I’m not going for no Trump presidency. You gotta ask Trump what he’s gonna do for me! And that can go both ways because what are we gonna do for Kamala now that the chips are down?
I actually wanted to play The Isley Brothers’ “Shout” the day prior, but it was too old for the crowd. We had a really young crowd on Election Night. There were a lot of older people there, but the young folks showed up for Kamala in droves. I played Victoria Monét’s “On My Mama,” because they call her “Momala” or “Big Mala” sometimes, so I wanted to make sure she was comforted. You could hear it in her voice – not saying that she couldn’t handle that moment, but if you could be anywhere in the world other than this specific place right now, I’m sure you’d want to be there.
I added a few extra songs that I played that weren’t on the approved list. I remember one of the DJs that I brought up was trying to play Soulja Boy and I was like, “Ay, turn that s—t off!” [Laughs.] I love you to death, but if the [artist] ever said anything stupid in public, we gon have to drain the swamp on that one! No Soulja, no Chris Brown… Bobby Brown didn’t even make it through testing.
Who made that call?
I don’t make those decisions. I don’t have that type of power. I spent seven or eight hours on the initial list making sure it was curated perfectly without any abusers, fascists, etc. When [her team] sent the list back, they only took off one name and it was Bobby Brown. I was able to play Chaka Khan and even Janet Jackson if I wanted to – I didn’t because [Jackson] had said something kinda goofy about Kamala.
What did you see on the crowd’s faces from your vantage point?
It was like a third homecoming. The energy out there was electric. It was even more hilarious with the random rally-goers and people who had never been around HBCU folks or Black people because they were like “What the hell is going on?! Why are they playing this song?”
There were even staff members asking me, “Can you play a dancing song?” And I’ll tell them, “This is the dancing song! This very slow Tamia song is the dancing song.” Women of all ages are moving to this one, and they will not get tired; they’ll do the song for nine minutes if they need to.
I played so much s—t on Election Night. We went around the world. I was playing calypso, soca, go-go, East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, Dirty South – I did a lot of Afrobeats on both days. For the concession speech, I played Asake’s “Organize,” and I thought it was really important for the movement moving forward. In order for us to do what we need to do, we need to get organized quickly.
On Election Night, people came in excited, and they got their hearts broken. Before the concession speech, people came in with their hearts already broken. You could see it on their faces. It was like trying to lift somebody out of despair, and they don’t wanna leave that [emotional] space just yet.
I almost felt like I lost the election, like I let y’all down. I was in the middle of it. When s—t really started getting bad — after 11:30 p.m., around midnight — they was asking me to play hype, dance, rally stuff. I was like, “As much as I can do that, I don’t think it’s gonna do what you think it’s gonna do right now.” Having to tell the truth is really more difficult than people give it credit for being. Don’t nobody wanna hear that s—t! They don’t wanna swag surf right now.
Speaking of, you’re also the DJ who broke “Swag Surfin” at Howard, right?
I am! And I was upset because they did a whole ESPN thing on this s—t and they got somebody on there who was on a whole different radio station at the time and damn near 50-60 years old – n—a, you wasn’t playing no “Swag Surf!”
We had to bring that record up from the South. N—as didn’t even put that shit in a promo email at first! Students were the n—as that put us on to it at first. I guess they went back for vacation and when they came back [Fast Life Yungstaz’s] “Swag Surf” was a big thing – and I wanted to make sure I was on top of it. I was breaking all the s—t. Everybody wanted to go more mainstream, and I was really trying to break that underground.
If I remember correctly, Obama was already president, and his brother-in-law, Michelle’s brother, is the head coach at Morgan State University. They devised this plan where Morgan ended up playing Howard every year at Howard, and Obama started coming to campus once a year just for a basketball game. I DJ’d the very first game that he came to; I played Jeezy and Jay-Z‘s “My President Is Black” and “Swag Surfin.” He gave me the head nod from about 1000 feet away.
I had hands in all that s—t, I was at Howard during what we call the “Golden Era” of those HBCU anthems. There were some songs I broke at Howard and some songs that I was the first to play in general. Like “Country S—t” by Big K.R.I.T. — we was beating down his DJ’s email because we wanted to play it, and it wasn’t in any record pool. He emailed us the studio version and the clean version, and I was one of the first people to ever play that record. Dom Kennedy wasn’t even trying to get on the radio, and he sent me a clean version of “1997.” That Howard legacy runs deep!
Rome Streetz and Daringer have been Griselda Records’ secret weapons.
Rome, who reps Brooklyn signed to Westside Gunn’s imprint back in July of 2021 and released the impressive album Kiss the Ring. On that project, is a song entitled “Tyson Beckford” where he and the label’s in-house producer Daringer first linked up. They then began working closely together because the Buffalo producer’s Queens studio is a hop, skip, and a jump from Rome’s Brooklyn apartment.
“When I ain’t doing s–t, I go to the studio,” Rome told me in a Billboard conference room. “I was literally there everyday for months just cookin’ up, just vibin’, listening to beats.” Daringer would already be working and he would play Rome beats until one of them caught his attention. “By the time he pulled up, I would have either something started or I would have part of a beat and then I would just be throwing records on until something something landed,” the Griselda beatmaker added.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
What resulted from those sessions is their first collab album Hatton Garden Holdup named after London’s diamond district. Rome spent some of his high school years across the pond and would come back to NYC during school breaks. But it wasn’t until they were out in London doing show’s with Griselda mainstay Conway the Machine that they got the idea for the short film which then turned into them naming the album, and interjecting London-based skits and samples into the final product to bring everything full circle. “It was easy to make that the theme once the movie was part of it,” Daringer said. “I felt like we had to even down to the name.”
The duo came by the Billboard office in midtown Manhattan to talk about the making of the album and the film which included some of Rome’s childhood London friends that he has continued to keep in touch with.
Trending on Billboard
Check out our talk below.
We might as well start with the short film you guys recently released. How did that idea come about? Like, what made you guys want to do a movie?Where in the process of the album. Did the in the did the idea come about to do it, to do a movie?
Rome Streetz: We were pretty much around 80 percent done with the album once we shot the movie. And it just hit me, like, ‘Yo, we should do a movie. Because [Coach] always wants the videos to be like little movies. Most of the videos Coach directs have kind of like a movie-esque vibe to them. We did “Chrome Magnum,” we did “Shake and Bake.” So, we’re like, ‘You know what? Let’s just do it, I’m saying. And because it’s not a Griselda album or something Westside Gunn is spearheading, we just wanted to do more than you would get from a Griselda album.
That’s what it really was: How can we just turn this sh—t up another level? How can we do something that most motherf—kers in this realm are not doing? Everybody drops the album, one or two music videos, do a couple interviews, drop a tape, CD, vinyl, and then it’s on to the next sh—t. Who’s actually doing a movie?
Hatton Garden is essentially London’s diamond district, there’s British samples from movies and interviews. When did the London theme come about?
R.S.: The London theme honestly, came from the movie. You know, I’m saying, like, once we did the movie. Then we started adding the London sh—t.Daringer: It was easy to make that the theme once the movie was part of it. I felt like we had to even down to the name.
Were you guys out there to perform or were you there specific all to shoot the movie?
R.S.: Earlier in the year, I was out there performing with Conway, and then it just kind of came about like that. And also because I used to live in London when I was a teenager for a couple years, so that was like a throwback to that time.
You were born in London, right?
R.S.: I was born in London, but I came to New York when I was like one. Then I went back to London from like 14 to like 17. It wasn’t for the whole year, I would go to school out there, and when school was done, I’d come back to New York.
You still have family and friends out there?
R.S.: Yeah, I got family, I got friends out there. A lot of my friends are into the same sh—t that we into. I communicate with them all the time: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp. So, I was like, how canI incorporate that into what I’m doing? How can we mix this London sh—t. A lot of my homeboys were in the movie. The part when we were in the alleyway talking? None of them were actors, they were all my homeboys.
Daringer, your name is synonymous when it comes to Griselda, so it was cool to see you, be more visible now. Is that something that you want to do moving forward?
D.: Absolutely, especially with me, just like, kind of flourishing more as an artist now too. It was always just me producing behind the scenes for all these years. Now is the time where I need to start moving as an artist. I feel like this was the perfect time to really start being outside and actually being seen. I felt like this was a perfect opportunity for that, for sure.
You guys have been working together since Rome has been with Griselda, but what made you want to do a tape together?
R.S.: We did that one song on Kiss the Ring, “Tyson Beckford.”D: Then he pulled up to my apartment.R.S.: The first song we did was the joint with Cormega.D: Right.R.S.: But Mega wasn’t on it at first. We did that joint, like, ‘This sh—t is hard.’ And what we gonna do? We just kept cooking up. His studio is right by my crib. We kept making stuff and was like, “We got a lot of songs we might is well do an album.”
And you live in Queens now. I guess it made it easier for you guys to kind of connect for this album. Or did that matter?
R.S.: His studio is on the border of Queens and Brooklyn and I live like 5-10 minutes away. When I ain’t doing s—t, I go to the studio, I was literally there everyday for months just cookin’ up, just vibin’, listening to beats.
So, you guys worked on most of the album together? Did you already have a pack of beats or were you making them on the spot as you guys were cookin’ up?
D: I made the majority of them on the spot. Maybe I’d have some drums started by the time he got there, or a sample idea, and I was kind of just trying to figure it out. By the time he pulled up, I would have either something started or I would have part of a beat, and then I would just be throwing records on until something something landed.
You living in Queens makes sense now because one of your first tapes outside of Griselda was with Meyhem Lauren.
D: Yeah, I traveled with Action when I first moved there, worked with Meyhem, getting tight with them, and being able to actually stay in New York now because I’m doing enough things, and then that was when the Shady deal happened. So, luckily I was able to stay in New York, but it’s funny because I didn’t have a studio when we “Tyson Beckford,” I was still just making beats out of my apartment. We made the first song in my apartment, and my goal was to always eventually just get a studio in New York, so it just happened to work out that it was close to where he was living. I feel like that definitely helped out with the whole process, it made things a lot easier.
What I found interesting about this tape was that some of it sounds different from the usual Griselda stuff, especially the track with ScHoolboy Q. I wasn’t expecting that beat to sound like that. Was that on purpose?
R.S.: Honestly, it was just energy. Whatever he was throwing at me. I wasn’t being picky. Daringer is Daringer, so it’s all gonna hit. We’re just gonna make sh—t until we feel like we got what we need. You know, we still got a lot more songs left over. And then the ScHoolboy Q record was so different and he wasn’t on it at first. He happened to tap me on Twitter. I was in the studio with Q, and he heard it, and wanted to get on it. The song that Daringer made for Q was the one that Conway was on. He heard that first, like “Yo, this is fire.”
But then he went to the bathroom, and then the engineer was just like, “Yo, play me some s—t.” So, then I just started playing him songs, and when I played him that one, Q just so happened to walk in the room and was like, “What the f—k is that? This is it. This is the one I wanna get on.” I had a second verse on it, so I had to call Daringer, like, “Oh s—t, yo, I need you to f—king send me this s—t right now without the verse on it. Luckily, I had to beat in my phone. That’s what saved it.
So, you and Q just happened to be in the same studio, or you linked up specifically to chill and record?
R.S.: I did an interview in Portugal when I was on tour and the interviewer asked me who is somebody I would like to work with. think I named, like, three other people, but then I named ScHoolboy Q, so then eventually the interview just ended up on Twitter, and then he seen it, and then he quote tweeted it, like, “Yo, send it.” I hit me back and he was like I could either send him the record or just pull up to the lab. So, I pulled up and went to L.A. That’s how it happened.
I’m always fascinated by this, especially since you guys worked on this together. Today, nobody does that anymore. They send a pack and then you send verses back. Can you tell us the difference between collabing over email versus being in the studio with each other?
R.S.: With me? At one point, I used to feel like I work better on my own time. Sometimes when you in the studio, you get boxed into the time constraints. I used to feel like I’d rather not put my creativity in a time constraint box, like I feel like I work better when I just have my own time. So, a lot of my other s—t was more so just like, you could send me a beat, I’ll cook it up. But this one was more of a challenge. How much can I write on the spot? I hear the beat, I’m going in right there.
I used to think that I write better rhymes outside of the studio, but this pretty much proved to me that it don’t matter, you got the glow. I like this process because it’s more of a stream of consciousness. It’s more of just your energy right then and there. When somebody sends you a pack, you probably write half a verse today and then finish it two days later, and you may not have the same energy.
I like working on the spot because it makes me better, it’s like a challenge. You’re capturing the energy right there. Your creativity dies when you’re too comfortable, you start leaning on s—t. I just feel like I need to challenge myself.D: That was the goal of me getting the studio to begin with. I don’t have control over what happens after I send the beat a lot of times. What helped with this album is that we got to revisit and work on the songs more, I guess, post production, or whatever you like to call it. It’s got to spend more time on the songs and structure them and drops, you know, and just the skits and outros, intros. All that extra stuff that maybe a lot of times I don’t add that when I’m just making.
The bells and whistles, just to make it perfect.
D: The email stuff is always like an unfinished idea that ends up becoming a song. That was definitely the goal of me getting the studio and wanting to make a record like that, and being able to spend the extra time for sure. We got to do the s—t the right way. I’m happy with my investment, just because of that.
Yeah, them all habits die hard. Rome, do you punch in?
R.S.: Nope, at least I try not to. I’m not gonna say I don’t, sometimes you have to for continuity. But the reason why I don’t like to punch in is because if I can’t spit the rhyme straight through, I can’t perform it. If I’m punching in every bar, how’s that gonna translate on the stage? I gotta be able to say the rhyme straight through. I gotta be able to record it in one whole take, if I can perform it.
Yeah, because that’s like the norm now, especially with the younger rappers.
R.S: When you see them on stage, they’re not even f—king rapping. They just let the song play, and they just jumping up and down, ad-libing their own vocals, because they can’t even say the sh—t in one breath because of the fact that they had to punch it.
Was this the first project that you recorded in full there?
D: Yup, it’s personal space. I’m not sharing it with anybody and no one is going in and out besides me. We probably wouldn’t even have that ScHoolboy record had we not been in the studio. Because it was a beat that started with just drums, and me listening to records and not overthinking. It was literally just like the first thing that landed that just sounded good with the drums and then we kind of just built on it. We did a bunch of the records like that.R.S.: Sometimes it’d be better that way. If I wasn’t there, that’ll probably be one he made that he didn’t like. But I heard it and was like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what the f—k is that? Sometimes you might just overthink it and be like, “Nah, this ain’t it.” The producer might want to do something, but then the rapper might hear something that the producer don’t hear. It’s like, “Nah, the rhyme could go crazy, right here. Don’t even add nothing. Keep it just like…” You know what I mean? That on the spot, energy is good.
Rome Streetz and Daringer
Photo Rob
How much input did you have on the beats?
R.S.: A lot, but I let Daringer do his thing. As far as the samples, it wasn’t like, “Pick this,” because he’s got 1000s of records. I don’t know what the s—t sounds like until he puts it together. Like, I don’t imagine you.
You work with The Alchemist closely too. He be digging obscure s—t. I’d imagine you do the same.
D: I’ve been on the same wave too. way. So, of course, when we got together, we could share ideas. I never felt like he thought I was gonna come in and just take his ideas either. So we always, somehow didn’t really run into the lot of the same things. We like a lot of the same music, a lot of the same records. But luckily, we didn’t run into too many instances where it was, like, we’re using the same sh—t. Yeah, the approach is a little different.
So, how’s that been for you, man? Now that you moved from Buffalo essentially into the industry for lack of a better term.
D: Not too many producers ever came out of Buffalo. I could only think of one off top that really flourished. Emile Haynie. And he took a different approach. He was doing Lana Del Rey and Mark Ronson. He’s worked on pop records, He did stuff with Ghostface and D.I.T.C. early on. He was around, but he definitely chose the pop route. So for me to be able to come up and stick with this style of rap, it feels dope. I always had the vision, but to actually come out of Buffalo and be able to move to New York City and be able to make a living from it? That was a big accomplishment.
How did you get affiliated with Griselda?
D: It’s crazy, we were bringing up Twitter before. There’s a small underground network that was going on in Buffalo at the time, so if you’re into that scene, we’re all going to run into each other at some point. I was a DJ at the time and I was trying to make beats on the side eventually. I was doing the DJ thing, playing showcases and playing rap records at a spot on Thursdays. I was a little bit younger, so I came in a little late, but I ended up meeting Gunn and Benny, and Gunn ended up just disappearing and then hit me on Twitter years later.
It was pretty much like, “Remember me, I’m about to put out an album. You got any beats?” And I was like, what Do you remember what year it was? 2014? HWH1. And that was the only original record on that tape.The rest of it was just like beats that he got, that he picked, that were already produced songs. That was the first one that we did, “Mess Hall Talk.” It was a little bit faster than a lot of the stuff that we would do down the line too.
He had the idea to start slowing the s—t down. Naturally, when we start pitching the music down, everything gets slower. I didn’t have Ableton and certain things at the time to maintain the tempo. That’s kind how the records and beats started getting slower, like 70 bpm, 60 bpm, type stuff. And he was coming from Atlanta at the time too, so you could tell there was some influence there. He kind of wanted to blend in the A with this type of rap, but with these tempos, with the samples pitched down, and it sounds like some chopped and screwed s—t.
Man, that makes sense. I never put those things together.
D: At least, I feel that way. That maybe was part of the reason why we were pitching it down to a certain speed. Also him still living there. Conway spent a bunch of time there. Benny spent a bunch of time there, so really Atlanta had a big influence on the whole s—t, surprisingly. The fact that he would travel all the way from Atlanta to Buffalo, he would drive a lot of times too. That’s not an easy drive. They would come to my apartment at the time, we recorded everything in my living room. Eventually, Conway stayed with and we started working on Reject 2. We ended up making two full records because he was staying with me the whole time. Looking back, making all that in my living room at the time was crazy, and the fact that Gunn was taking all these trips back and forth from the A to lock in made it even more special.
What else you got going on or planned. Anything you could talk about?
R.S.: I got an album with Conductor — probably two albums worth of music. I got sh—t with V Don. I got s—t with Muggs, Futurewave. I did a mixtape with Real Bad Man. I got a lot of sh—t.D: I want to do a compilation featuring a bunch of different artists on it. That’s always been a thing that I wanted to do. I think I’m going to end up doing a couple of them and make a series out of it. I got music with Meyhem still, so we’re probably gonna do a follow up. Maybe one day me and Bronson will do a full length. I did a handful of the records on that last album. So hopefully one day we could tap in and do a full length. Reject 2 is turning 10, so maybe Reject 3 with Conway in the next year or two. I’m really just focusing on me as an artist.
I’m sure you want to show off your versatility, because I think you kind of did that with this tape.
R.S.: One thing I can say, when it comes to picking the beats, I was purposely steering away from certain type of beats only because fans are used to hearing that. it’s like one No, rather than being a whole album, I kind of knew what to expect, but then the project was still about to surprise me.D: We definitely worked on the sequence for a while and put that puzzle together. I feel like, once we got the songs in a specific order, we were able to start adding the skits and gluing it all together.R.S.: That’s the one benefit of working with one producer. You’re able to make all the songs flow into each other. I’m not saying you can’t do it with multiple producers, but it’s a little bit more difficult. You would literally have to get all of them people in the room at the same time to orchestrate that.
Why do you like working with one producer?
R.S.: I like to do one producer because it’s just cohesive. Sometimes when you have a bunch of different producers on one tape, you can’t really get a lot of the post production. I’m a fan of post production. Sometimes when I get beat and rap over it, when I play the song back, it sounds totally different. It’s easier to make intros and outros. If I’m getting packs all day, it’s harder to get 10 different producers to agree on the overall sound. One producer might like the mix on it, but then the other three might not like it, so then you gonna have to re-mix that song to go with that song.It could get crazy. I like working with one producer because you can kind of maximize the sound. You can get the most out of it, the producer can sit with it.
You should’ve did a British accent on one of the songs.
R.S.: [Laughs.] I probably have to go back to London for a couple years to get that sh—t down pat.
Were there any British movies or TV shows that inspired the samples and skits? I know the short was inspired by Snatch.
R.S.: Probably that that interview with the road man, that s—t funny as hell.D: I watched things like Layer Cake to get the gist of it which sent me into a rabbit hole. There was a few joints from the ’70s that I was hoping to sample, but basically just ended up watching them to catch a vibe. We used something on “Starbvxkz” that we added at the last minute, pretty much when we were doing the video. Definitely some influence there.
You guys planning on going on tour? London definitely has to be a stop, right?
R.S.: They’re not going to let me live if I don’t. That’s the main place that I have to do a show.
Rick Ross visited Graceland recently and was left both impressed and inspired as he realized he and the King of Rock and Roll had a lot in common. He posted a series of videos on his Instagram Story as he narrated the footage in proper Rick Ross fashion. “Elvis Presley’s own Graceland is behind me,” […]
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is a massive Ice Cube fan, and he brought out the dance moves for the West Coast icon’s performance at the World Series parade celebration last week. Roberts joined Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts’ On Base podcast earlier this week where he joked with his manager about being a backup […]
At the end of the summer, A$AP Rocky released a music video that quickly took over the internet. The video for the song “Tailor Swif” was described as a surreal dream journey. However, anyone familiar with Soviet art, lifestyle, fashion, cinematography and aesthetics will notice many interesting references in the work. The video was filmed in Kyiv, Ukraine, just months before the war began. A particularly intriguing aspect is that the production company behind the video, shelter.film, is based in Kyiv. The company is co-founded and led by Albert Zurashvili, who is from Georgia. It’s even more notable that shelter.film now operates out of Georgia, continuing to work on numerous international projects.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Recently, shelter.film received several prestigious awards for A$AP Rocky’s music video at the renowned Ciclope Festival. The project was among the winners in five categories, including the Grand Prix in the music video category.
Trending on Billboard
Billboard Georgia interviewed Albert Zurashvili, who shared insights about shelter.film and the experience working on A$AP Rocky’s “Tailor Swif” video. shelter.film was founded five years ago in Kyiv, with a vision established by Zurashvili. He explains that the talented professionals, who are now part of the shelter.film team, helped him bring this vision to life. Today, Gena Shevchenko and Marina Karmolit are his partners, and together they manage shelter.film. The company launched on April 1, a date that led many to believe it was a prank. “We were too busy launching the project to look at the dates,” says Zurashvili.
The core team at shelter.film consists of six members, and since its founding, it has grown into one of Ukraine’s most well-known production companies. Its international portfolio includes work for several leading brands, such as Chanel, Coca-Cola and Samsung. Now, shelter.film is operating worldwide with offices in Kyiv, Tbilisi and Brussels and is constantly exploring new horizons for their clients.
Despite its service-oriented business model, shelter.film is part of the creative industries, known for its innovative and artistic approach. In today’s advertising landscape, competition is incredibly fierce, with impressive videos being produced daily. Brands consistently launch creative campaigns that capture attention. Even in this competitive environment, shelter.film has carved out its own niche. A signature style runs through their work, showcasing that its creators treat advertising as a form of art. The shelter.film team aims to produce projects that leave a lasting impact on society.
“Shooting videos is generally not too complicated these days. But bringing it to storytelling within commercials with a high-end cinematography or just ripping eye-candy art is somewhat not as easy,” says Zurashvili.
According to him, the company strives to express its creativity. For shelter.film, the process is more than just completing tasks and delivering projects—it’s something that each team member truly enjoys.
“We are blessed to have the opportunity to get involved in socially impactful projects,” Zurashvili says. “We always support new names and evolving talents, as true progress in our industry lies in people, not just tools. Working in international markets these days, we are still getting top Ukrainian specialists involved in every project (physically or remotely) to keep those gems of people around and on track.”
As mentioned earlier, shelter.film has collaborated with many leading companies across various industries. Advertising projects, by their nature, consider numerous client briefs. When we asked how the shelter.film team manages to preserve the artistic value of each commercial video, Albert Zurashvili responded.
“It may sound tall, but we’re doing everything possible to avoid compromises,” he says. “We’re not overpromising but over delivering and never under budgeting. So we’re pretty straightforward about that — we can do it best within the budget line or not. No one wants failures, and we can foresee and avoid them. It’s not just a reputational risk – it’s actual damage for specialists and the image of the country on a global stage as a destination for films and celebrities. So we’re not choosing between commerce and art, I’d say. We’re creating commercial art.
“In recent decades, Ukraine has become a well-known destination for major brands and artists to film their best projects. For that to happen, service production companies collaborating with extremely skilled specialists have put years of sweat and passion into proving that this is the way to do it. After years of hard work and establishing the highest level of service in Eastern Europe, along with the most experienced crew, we started to see significant income for the country through all those worldwide projects. Many talented directors and other creative professionals are eager to bring their work to Ukraine or Georgia, as the level of achievement they attain and the excitement and involvement of the crews are just incredible.”
Marina Karmolit, Albert Zurashvili and Gena Shevchenko of shelter.film photographed for Billboard Georgia.
Ninutsa Kakabadze
Despite numerous high-budget commercials and various projects, one of shelter.film’s standout achievements is the A$AP Rocky music video. The concept for the video was developed by directors Vania Heymann and Gal Muggia, a duo renowned for their work with many stars of the global music scene, including Coldplay, as well as brands like Nike and Apple. Shelter.film has previously collaborated with these directors on various projects, including a Dua Lipa music video.
“It was a freestyle of developing and polishing the details of every scene on the go in a short-term and extra-confidential manner,” says Zurashvili. “Most of the crew coming to the set were unaware of who we were shooting for and were surprised when they arrived. A few weeks later, A$AP and his gang arrived in town, and we spent a few amazing days in Kyiv shooting this crazy project, doing all the tricks possible, and filming it on a Kodak 16mm camera. Working with film is always exciting, as you don’t see the final result until the material is developed and scanned. It was an unforgettable experience.
“No need to mention there were tons of negotiations that took us more than half a year of constant discussion, but it was definitely worth it. One of the highlights for us is that we involved an incredibly talented Ukrainian director of photography, Denys Lushchyk, in shooting this music video.”
In one of the scenes of A$AP Rocky’s music video, a famous scene from the 1977 film Mimino, by Georgian director Georgiy Daneliya, is brought to life. As Zurashvili explains, this decision was made by the directors. “It’s a fantastic reference from Georgiy Daneliya and I’m happy we have it there,” mentions Albert. According to him, A$AP Rocky was deeply involved during both the filming and post-production stages, and the entire team worked to a high professional standard.
For the shelter.film team, visual communication is an art form and a unique way of telling a story. This approach is consistent whether they are working on a commercial advertisement or a music video. “Every art form, even if it’s commercial, has a timestamp,” Zurashvili says. “All great stories should be told. Art is about freedom of expression. I appreciate any brands and artists brave enough to be on the cutting edge of history. The loudness of your voice brings power and responsibility to those who trust and follow you. Positive change can happen only where there is responsible, kind, and intelligent dialogue. As I said, we’re happy to have our role in it and always contribute with full responsibility.”
Rosie Perez is the ultimate wingwoman. The White Men Can’t Jump actress sat down with Drew Barrymore on the latter’s talk show this week, where she recalled a pivotal moment in the 1990s when she and her late friend Tupac Shakur had each other’s backs. “So I was going to the Soul Train Music Awards […]
Tyrese ends a nine-year absence from the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart as “Wildflower” rules the list dated Nov. 9. The single rises from the runner-up slot and becomes the most played song on U.S. monitored adult R&B radio stations in the tracking week of Oct. 25 – 31, according to […]
Tyler, the Creator earns his first No. 1 on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart with “St. Chroma,” featuring Daniel Caesar, which debuts atop the Nov. 9-dated ranking.
“St. Chroma,” which was released on Oct. 28, earned 24.3 million official U.S. streams in the tracking week ending Oct. 31, according to Luminate. That means the song was able to reign despite having three fewer days of tracking than the vast majority of its competition.
The rapper’s previous top-performing songs on Streaming Songs, which began in 2013, had been “Earfquake” and “Wusyaname” (the latter featuring YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Ty Dolla $ign), both of which peaked at No. 3 in 2019 and 2021, respectively.
In fact, two songs from Chromakopia, Tyler, the Creator’s new album, top his previous bests. “Noid,” the album’s lone pre-release single (it premiered Oct. 21), appears at No. 2 with 23.2 million streams in its first full frame.
It’s the first time since the Sept. 7-dated Streaming Songs that the same act holds the top two of the chart. Sabrina Carpenter did so with “Taste,” which debuted at No. 1 that week, followed by “Please Please Please” at No. 2.
As for Caesar, “St. Chroma” is the singer’s second No. 1 on Streaming Songs, both coming as a featured act and also as No. 1 debuts; he previously appeared on Justin Bieber’s “Peaches,” alongside Giveon, which ruled for a week in 2021.
In all, Tyler, the Creator boasts 13 songs – including five of the top 10 on the latest Streaming Songs list. Only Chromakopia’s “I Hope You Find Your Way Home” misses the 50-position survey.
“St. Chroma” also becomes his second leader on R&B/Hip-Hop Streaming Songs, following the one-week reign of “Wusyaname.”
Concurrently, as previously reported, “St. Chroma” sports Chromakopia’s top rank on the Billboard Hot 100 – No. 7 – and the album bows atop the Billboard 200.
Young Thug has a new lease on life after being released from jail last week on a plea deal, and he’s thankful for attorneys like his lawyer Brian Steel.
Thugger made a virtual special guest appearance over FaceTime during Steel’s Emory Law School class lecture on Wednesday (Nov. 6), where he was preaching the importance of defense attorneys, as videos online show.
“We had a situation that was daunting towards my life and I think that the justice system could be bad,” Thug said to the group of students while reflecting on his 700-plus-day stint behind bars. “You know, sometimes it could be bad, and you gotta always look at it, like, they’re there to put us in prison and you guys are here to keep us from prison.”
Trending on Billboard
The 33-year-old Atlanta rapper then made the case for the aspiring legal experts to become defense attorneys rather than working as prosecutors.
“I think you guys should become lawyers,” he suggested. “I think it’s very important to help people out of the situations they’re in the best you can. I mean, what side do you wanna be on? You wanna put people in prison for mistakes? Because everybody makes mistakes — we’re human.”
Thugger added: “And everybody in this classroom, you always need to know that you want one mistake away. Anything you need from me, I’m here always. We need y’all.”
Thug got a belly laugh out of the class while hyping up Steel as “the best person possible” and claimed that defense attorneys are doing a version of “God’s work.”
Young Thug — born Jeffery Williams — reached a plea deal on Oct. 31, and was released with no more time to be served, but will be on probation for the next 15 years.
“I know you’re talented, and if you choose to continue to rap, you need to try to use your influence to let kids know that is not the way to go and that there are ways out of poverty besides hooking up with the powerful guy at the end of the street selling drugs,” Judge Paige Reese Whitaker said to Thug.
Thugger ended up serving more than two years in jail after repeatedly being denied bond since his arrest in May 2022. The YSL RICO case became Georgia’s longest-running criminal trial ever, and isn’t finished yet, with two co-defendants still on trial.
Halle Bailey says she’s “extremely upset” after DDG and their son Halo made what she says was an “unapproved” appearance on Kai Cenat’s livestream Wednesday night (Nov. 6).
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The Little Mermaid actress voiced her frustrations on X about unknowingly having her almost 1-year-old son in front of millions of eyeballs on Kai’s stream.
“Hi everyone,” she began. “Just so you know I am out of town and I don’t approve of my baby being on a stream tonight. I wasn’t told or notified and I am extremely upset to have my baby in front of millions of people. I am his mother and protector and saddened I wasn’t notified especially when I am out of town.”
Trending on Billboard
Per Essence, Bailey added in a separate tweet that she was going through “severe postpartum” and wrote, “Nobody knows what somebody is going through until they snap.”
Footage of Halo’s appearance quickly went viral along with Bailey’s tweets. Cenat showered DDG and Halle’s son with plenty of gifts to take home.
Bailey later deactivated her X account.
Billboard has reached out to reps for Bailey and DDG.
DDG and Bailey went public with their relationship in January 2022, and Halle gave birth to Halo in late 2023. The couple announced their split in October when DDG posted a message to his Instagram Story that he and Halle would be going separate ways.
“After much reflection and heartfelt conversations, Halle and I have decided to go our separate ways,” he wrote at the time. “This decision was not easy, but we believe it’s the best path forward for both of us. I cherish the time we’ve spent together and the love we’ve shared.
DDG continued, “Despite the changes in our relationship, our love for each other remains deep and true. We are still best friends and adore each other. As we focus on our individual journeys and our roles as co-parents, we cherish the bond we’ve build and the beautiful moments we’ve shared.”
Halle opened up about her battle with “severe” postpartum depression as a new mother in April. She posted to Snapchat at the time, “I have severe, severe postpartum [depression], and I don’t know if any new moms can relate, but it’s to the point where it’s really bad, and it’s hard for me to be separated from my baby for more than 30 minutes at a time before I start to kind of freak out.”