We're premiering the music video for "Dig It," a track on Kenny Beats and KEY!'s collaborative album 777, one of last year's best hip hop albums from two of the hottest characters in that realm. The video was animated by another rising star in the hip hop world, William Child, a visual artist who has animated videos for Open Mike Eagle, Rolling Loud Festival, and made numerous sculptures and paintings that depict rap superstars. In the wake of this new notch in Child's creative belt, we caught up with him about some of the work he's done and heard a bit of his story. Check it out below.
We're premiering the music video for "Dig It," a track on Kenny Beats and KEY!'s collaborative album 777, one of last year's best hip hop albums from two of the hottest characters in that realm. The video was animated by another rising star in the hip hop world, William Child, a visual artist who has animated videos for Open Mike Eagle, Rolling Loud Festival, and made numerous sculptures and paintings that depict rap superstars. In the wake of this new notch in Child's creative belt, we caught up with him about some of the work he's done and heard a bit of his story. Check it out below.
Juxtapoz: How did this collaboration come about? Have you worked with either of these folks before?
William Child: I initially spoke to Mister and Tabari after sending them my portfolio. We discussed video concepts for other artists they work with, but I was already a fan of Key!, so when the guys from Erise sent me ‘Dig It’ from 777, it was immediately clear that I could make a great video for this song.
You've worked a lot with hip-hop in the past, what's your connection to hip hop?
I got interested in hip hop in my early teens, with albums like 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin, TI’s King, and The Game’s Documentary, and my love for it has only grown since. Hip hop is the thing I feel most passionate about, which enables me to produce my best work, as it's always easiest to work on something I truly care about. Outside that, the imagery, storytelling, aesthetic and the vibrant and often eccentric personalities in hip hop lend themselves very well to claymation! In my relatively young career in this field, I feel very lucky to be have been able to work with some musicians I already greatly admire.
Who are some of your artistic icons?
In terms of people who have influenced my style, I would say some of the main ones are the illustrators Ralph Steadman and Joan Cornella, sculptor Wilfrid Wood, Quentin Tarantino and Aardman Animations amongst a ton of others. I reference or take influence from tons of films & tv too; Team America, Heat, Isle of Dogs, Breaking Bad, Thunderbirds, Alan Partridge and Scarface. So, my inspirations are a bit all over the place, haha.
When did you start making stop motion/claymation? Do you make other kinds of art?
The stop motion and claymation stuff is still relatively new to me in the grand scheme of things - my first full video was for New Jersey artist Da$h at the end of 2017 (prior to that my only clip was a clunky 10 second clip of Donald Trump vomiting the word ‘Bigly’), but since finding out how much I loved the medium I have been pretty much constantly working on claymation projects, commercial as well as some just for practice. My experience with any form of animation prior to that was with some very lo-fi papier mache puppets around the time I was doing my degree - namely couple of music videos (one for Meyhem Lauren & Action Bronson) and a short film about Pablo Escobar I made for my final university project in 2012. In terms of other creative endeavors, I do some graphic design (I was working in a graphic design job before leaving to pursue what I do now in 2017), set & prop design, clay sculpture and a little bit of painting! I try to keep doing as much different stuff as I can because these skillsets have a habit of bleeding into each other and being useful in other ways.
What do you got planned for the year?
I’m currently about to finish work on some stuff for a basketball documentary due for release in the US, and I’m looking to get another 2-3 music videos done over the course of the year, as well as commercials and other projects. I’ve started writing up ideas for a couple of short films which I’d love to get the ball rolling on, and I’m planning on opening an online store selling some bits from the studio. I’d love to do an exhibition at some point too, so a busy year ahead hopefully, haha!
