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ahead of this week's @verzuzonline, figured i'd do a quick rundown of some of the work i've done with // around the guys through the years 'cause... why not, right?
i met Jeezy first. quick interview for Mass Appeal's old "Fight Club" column. must have been... spring 2005 (don't remember which issue it appeared in). we talked at the Def Jam offices and he told a story about putting "jumper cables" on people during his days at teen boot camp.
that was also the day i met Coach K, fwiw. at the time, i didn't know that he'd been a part of Pastor Troy's success as well. probably good for both of us. i would have talked his ear off about Troy. was always a big fan of PT
this is probably one of my favorite sleeper albums of all time https://open.spotify.com/album/3v66x0xBLjFbSTsFZRTyzR?si=EGRzoJn1RkOoppGX8KjI4g
i didn't see Jeezy again until the fall of 2006 in the lead up to the Inspiration. (i was hot that i didn't get to write the VIBE profile on him ahead of TM 101. also @Rondell12 and I lobbied HARD to put Jeezy on the cover in fall of 2005. didn't happen.)
we met up in Manhattan and rode around all day, from a photo shoot in a loft on Canal to a Rocawear pop up at a Foot Locker (i think it was) on 6th ave across the street from Bryant Park. that was a crazy time in Jeezy's life and we got into A LOT while riding through the city.
one thing i'll always remember is riding down 7th ave past MSG while Flex dropped bombs all over "I Luv It." Jeezy and I stopped talking while we listened to Flex bring it back again and again. and again.
later that night, we went to a party at the old Hiro Ballroom in the bottom of the Maritime Hotel. i remember running into to Tip and B.G. and Tip telling me (about Jeezy) to "take care of my guy." that was also the day/night i first got to kick it with Said (RIP)
in May 2008, i hooked back up with Jeezy for his first VIBE cover story. we went to SNL for the season finale where he performed Love In This Club w/ Usher. John McCain was also a guest and the story ended up making some waves because of Jeezy's initial reaction to meeting McCain
a couple of weeks later, we were in Miami for Memorial Day Weekend. Jeezy had basically taken over the Sagamore -- pool parties all day, penthouse parties all night. "Put On" had just come out and that was all you heard coming out of the cars riding down Collins.
we had another long talk one of those nights in Miami, this time in his penthouse. once again, i was impressed by how forthcoming he was. the story was part of the rollout to The Recession and you can check it out here. https://books.google.com/books?id=lyYEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA81#v=onepage&q&f=false
in the spring of 2009, i talked to Gucci for the first time. it was a quick phoner -- 15-20 minutes -- as part of a program we were doing on http://vibe.com called 60 rappers in 60 days. it was basically an Advent calendar of new rap interviews, updated daily.
Gucci had recently been released (this was the "First Day Out" era) & i remember when we spoke OJ Da Juiceman had recently been shot. we talked about OJ, Gucci's post prison plans, his Bart Simpson chain & the upcoming Birthday Bash. he was a charismatic shit-talker on the phone.
in January 2010, i was back in Miami with Jeezy for another Vibe cover story. at the time, TM 103 was "coming soon." he was working with Khaled out of a small studio in South Beach. Shake had died. Gucci was ascendant. he was no longer working with Coach...
i spent three days in Miami wandering around waiting for the interview and then one night we linked up at the studio and talked for several hours. the story isn't online (i don't believe) but this was the cover.
that June, I hooked up with Gucci again, in person this time, for an ill-fated story for Spin. we met in L.A. during BET Awards weekend and I shadowed Gucci as he kicked it in the lobby of the W Hotel in Hollywood, went to the awards, hit the club and recorded with Pharrell.
things that stand out about that experience - Gucci basically being cool with me hanging around but also being really reserved. i was "with" him for three days but we never actually really talked until we got on the phone a few weeks later. and the session with Pharrell.
they recorded a song that Gucci ended up not using and later came back to life as T.I.'s "Amazing" on No Mercy.
Gucci ultimately didn't show for the photo shoot & the piece didn't make the magazine as a result. to me, the whole experience seemed to reinforce the idea that despite Gucci's output and magnetism he was having a real hard time getting out of his own way https://www.spin.com/2010/10/gucci-mane-his-own-worst-enemy/
5 years later (!!), @nomizeichner hit me up about doing the oral history of Gucci for Fader's 100th issue. it was a dope, ambitious idea that involved a lot of interviews, a lot of favors and a lot of help. Gucci ultimately didn't talk for the piece but a LOT of other people did
couldn't have do it w/o @neil_mb, everyone who participated and the whole Fader staff https://www.thefader.com/2015/10/01/gucci-mane-oral-history-hard-to-kill
figure worth adding an additional chapter here... in 2018, my name got tossed in the hat as a potential writer for the Gucci film (to be based on Gucci & @neil_mb's instant classic, The Autobiography of Gucci Mane)...
it was a wild moment. i'd been working more and more on screenplays/screenwriting, but at the time i was putting all of my energy into Mass Appeal and i didn't have a completed screenplay to my name. i also didn't know anything really about pitching a screenplay to a studio...
this all came together pretty quickly. i found out that i might be up for consideration for the job at sxsw (had a convo w/ @itsthereal about it at Fader Fort that year), got back to NYC...
crammed in a reread of the Gucci book over the next week, plus all the old stuff out there and wrote up a treatment of sorts -- basically just a dump of of a narrative framework -- over the course of a few mornings before going to the Mass Appeal office...
sent the treatment over to the plug (s/o the plug; iykyk) and then... waited. a month or so went by and nothing really. i looked at my notes. i drew out some story diagrams at the crib. and waited...
then at some point in late April, i got the call that the studio wanted to meet to talk about my materials. and they wanted to talk soon. i was... psyched! and intimidated. i'd never talked to a studio about writing a script before. and of course, i definitely wanted the job...
i hit my agent. he'd just started working at CAA. like brand new to the building. in fact, there was some kind of CAA orientation/retreat type thing and i was like... i've got this meeting! wtf do i do??
he hit me right back. "that's incredible! BUT we're all OOO at this retreat so it's hectic right now. let me see if i can find you someone on the screenwriting side who can help"...
the meeting was scheduled for a Friday. it was maybe Monday. i looked at my materials. i was nervous, but i felt like, you know, i know this subject. i have a good take. i can do this!... days passed. the meeting approached...
i checked in with CAA. saw some emails flying back and forth on my behalf. there's a whole separate conversation to have here about agents, but in the moment, i was like the building was on my side! i can't lose! and...
i never got the chance to connect w/ anyone at CAA to prep. and let me tell you about that meeting: i bombed! oh, man. so bad. before the call was over, i knew i was toast.
here's the thing: i'm used to pitching stories in writing. you do your little synopsis. explain where you want to go with the story. what the major beats are, etc. and then if // when you talk to an editor about it, you talk it all through.
the editor's read the material you sent over. they have specific questions about it. you answer those or consider them, etc. but basically, you're working off of the doc. what i didn't know at the time -- and i quickly learned -- that's not how pitch meetings go.
you have to "sell" the story in the room / on the call. it's almost like a performance in a way, where you walk the execs through your idea. you don't have to act it out (though apparently some people do), but you have to bring an enthusiasm to the room & again, you have to sell
yeah, i didn't do that. also: there's a whole language to pitching screenplays that i'm STILL learning. all of which is to say i was pretty much out of my element and in over my head....
i just kept being like, so... did you read the stuff i sent over? "yeah, sure. it's great. tell us about your film." and i'm like... well, did you read the stuff i sent over?
so, yeah, needless to say, i didn't get the job.
so, yeah, needless to say, i didn't get the job.
but i kept seeing the movie in my head, and again, of course, i really wanted the job. so i lobbied hard to get another call w/ them. i talked to the guys at CAA (they were finally back in the office), like, "get me another shot!"
i didn't get another shot, but i did go ahead and write. at one point, i was like, f' it, i'm just going to write the movie anyway and that way if anything falls apart with the screenwriter they hired, i'll have something ready to go.
another job related to this thread but still TBA got in the way of that, but i did take a crack at the first 15 pages or so....
my big idea (so to speak) was that Gucci's movie should basically be Wolf of Wall Street for trap music. here's this guy. he's unpredictable. big personality. charismatic. bit of a drug problem...if you could bring that WoWS energy to Gucci's story, that could really be something
edgy, dark, violent at times, humorous... basically WoWS / Goodfellas for the Atlanta scene. that was my take.
anyway, i still have A LOT to learn about screenwriting and the pitch process, etc., but figured i'd share these pages cause... why not?
