Words By: Hallway Jay
Edited & Intro By: Mike Waxx

Rik Cordero is more then that guy who directs those hot videos online. Having done official videos with the likes of Ghostface Killah, Joe Budden, Beanie Sigel, Smif N Wessun, Joell Ortiz and more in the past year, Mr. Cordero is about to take the hip-hop music video game one notch higher. To call his work “music videos” however is an understatement, they come across more like music films. In Rik’s promotional trailer for Jay-Z’s ‘Blue Magic’, the comparison between drugs and music is shown, through an ongoing trade starting in the streets and ending in the hands of DJ Clue. His rugged and raw video style seems to stand alone in the video field and is bound to lead him and Three21 media to huge things.

illRoots: First off thank you for this interview, it is a real blessing to sit down with someone with such a crazy schedule like yours. Congratulations on the Mixtape Monday joint on MTV as well.

Rik Cordero: Yeah, of course.

illRoots: What’s the most important part of a music video?

Rik Cordero: I think the most important part is the honesty. And I mean in terms of the artist believing in what there doing rather there acting. That’s in whatever your doing, to mutually discover that truthfulness.

illRoots: What was the most complicated video that you had to put together?

Rik Cordero: I’d say logistically it would have probably been Ghostface. Only because it was three major artists, we shot out of town, and some of them had shows like two hours before we shot so we were working against almost every obstacle imaginable. Another one was Big Lou’s “Crack Head” video, I think with that it was really that we shot the right places and were really not try to make it feel contrived. Especially a video called “Crack Head”, there’s really a stigma attached to it, we use the word so loosely and I didn’t want it to end up a comedy. Its just because, again, I wanted to capture the honesty.

Ghostface (Ft. Beanie Sigel & Styles P) - Barrel Brothers

illRoots: So you Launched Three21 Media in 1999. Where were you before launching this particular company?

Rik Cordero: I think I was in school, still in college. I went to school for engineering first than I realized it wasn’t my thing, [so] I took on computer graphics. From there I was doing more creative things and over the course of the years in school I drifted toward film making. I actually would take most of my projects and create short films out of them, if they involved in a presentation, it actually turned out to be the blueprint to what I am doing now. You know the music video thing took off the past 2 years and back then it was up but we were working with independent artists and musicians. And we were doing it really for the love, we weren’t getting paid and that type of experimentation and work ethic allowed us to get into the hip-hop music video game.

illRoots: What do think separates Three21 from any other production company out right now?

Rik Cordero: I think what separates us is that we care and we listen. I know that sounds cliché and generic but its true. We aim to capture the human condition rather [that it being] about a bunch of guys rapping about the block or a battered woman or heartfelt song about a guy who’s brother is on drugs or if its Joell with the struggles in the hood, its about capturing that humanity and listening and caring, that’s what really separates us. We take that time to figure out what the artist is about, and translating what they are feeling. We aren’t in the business for business we are more for the artist to artist. As well the ability to have a viewer ship on the internet has given us that creative freedom to do the things that other production companies won’t do. Rather its budget limitation or client limitation or advertising agency that limit people from doing what we want to do and we actually went all the around by using the internet. When we first started doing music videos, we were criticized that they weren’t official videos and that just motivated me to say what makes that official and where does that elitism stem from. Is it something that the public has been conditioned to or is it something that has to be cost “X” amount of dollars to be considered a video or is it art for the sake of art. And there is a difference between art and commerce but we are working to blur those lines and really take each project into special consideration. Each one is different and I can’t say for this amount of money your going to get this and I can’t say that because its not really about that. Every project is different and you really have to approach each in that way. I see other companies who are doing similar budget levels that we are doing maybe a little higher maybe the 15 to 30 budget range. The bigger companies flat out charge 30% flat fee rather it’s 10 or 20 or whatever. Sometimes you get into situations where your crew is unhappy and they realize that 30 percent is being taken off the top for no reason and we approach that differently. We all complete the project to put it out there. The second half of the question is we use the second half of that time to promote that video with our relationships with the bloggers and so forth and everybody that supports this hip-hop thing. We appreciate them. I really don’t see any other company putting forth that type of effort.

Consequence - Uncle Raheim
MTV’s Mixtape Monday “Internet Video of the Year”

illRoots: I’m seeing your track record over the past few years with Budden and Ortiz. What can we look for as far as videos are concerned?

Rik Cordero: I think we are going to continue to work with the up and comers as well as some of the guys from the 90’s. We are going to continue to push the envelope on the videos and going off the fans and the artists more than the labels. More narrative work, we have a feature in development right now with some commercial work and the music video thing is where we came from and we are looking to take our marketing game to the next level.

illRoots: So other than film and music videos and all that, what other ventures have you thought about going into?

Rik Cordero: I think I definitely am interested in marketing; I think that’s pretty clear, trying to figure out different solutions and try to bridge the gap between the consumers and the products. There’s a lot of traditional methods that the corporations are used to that with film and so forth the internet utilizes viral advertising more. I think we are slowly helping them embrace the internet more. We’re just realizing the potential and we are going to try to branch out of the hip hop music video game as well.

illRoots: I definitely appreciate you sitting down with us.

Rik Cordero: Definitely and shout out to all the bloggers and the whole Three21 Media. And illRoots, we are going to keep you guys posted on everything, keep up all the good work.

For more on Rik Cordero including all of his videos, visit three21media.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Interview, Music Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.