A few months ago my friend Andrew got in touch asking if I was interested in doing a music video for Styles P. I had done an earlier promo for his label and we’ve kept a running dialogue of music videos over the last year or so. Shooting this was my first opportunity to go all the way street and gritty. It was super fun, of course, and the first thing I’ve ever done to air on MTV.

When I was 18 and interning at a production company that did socially-conscious documentaries, I was amazed that my supervisor would listen to DJ Clue mixtapes during off-time. She took the irony in stride and told me that the streets will always be fertile ground for stories. They are.