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Perspective: Coodie

Coodie
Director
Channel Zero
NYC by way of Chicago IL


Job History
In high school, I worked in Baskin Robbins. I was giving out so much free ice cream. Exact change, I was killin' em!
Ever since the 7^th grade, I was involved in Radio/TV. My sister, Tonya Simmons, would bring me up to Percell Julian and I'd sneak in while they worked with cameras, videos, commercials, etc. Terry Davis was the teacher there. So at my freshman orientation, I'm working the camera and it blossomed from there.
I also made the basketball team but it wasn't for me. Besides that, I hosted the talent shows so I was behind the scenes and in front of the camera.
After getting kicked out of Northern for acting up, I was reading meters for Commonwealth Edison.
Around that same time, I also started doing stand-up comedy. My first time performing, Bernie Mac brought me onstage. And I did good so Bernie asked me back. And I started getting good and getting good and Commonwealth Edison wasn't what I really wanted to do. I didn't like getting up in the morning, so they fired me ;)
I then focused on doing comedy and my TV show "Channel Zero." I was the host, not really knowing that I was also producing it too. It was me, Danny Sworge, Sonny, Titty Head Ted, and T Bale. Then it was just me and Danny running around. I'm doing comedy, the TV show, and trying to make ends meet. Luckily, my wife looked out a whole lot. She always had a job so there were funds there. My parents looked out whenever I needed it. I'd make stuff here and there but thanks to them, that helped a lot. And I could focus on being an entertainer.
And with the show, I started directing, working the camera. We filmed a fight where this white girl got beat up and Danny got scared and put the camera down. "Dog, give me the camera!" and I'm in the fight. This is the famous footage. When I see Shaq or Method Man, they're like, "Channel Zero, what's up with that fight." They loved that shit. And I had a knack for doing that.
So I started working with the camera. I'd hang with rapper Cap 1 and go to Kanye West's house filming them. He's got beats so I realized I needed to film Kanye. I drove The Source Truck in Chicago so I'd tell Kanye to come out. John Monopoly and Loon put me up on that gig. So it's me and John John in The Source Truck, so we the people in Chicago! Kanye would meet us, and John worked with Kanye for years so it was all love and I'd film them all. And Kanye would see the show because it was a popular show on Public Access.
Kanye moved to New York and then I moved to New York. I used to visit all the time and even brought the truck once and every visit, something would happen. I'd do a commercial, so I had to be in NYC everyday. And "Channel Zero" got so popular that The Source made it the website TV show.
Then The Source came out with "Station Zero" with MTV about four entrepreneur teenagers with a public access show. We're like that's us. Everybody in Chicago was crying foul, interviewing us on the radio. I wasn't saying nothing bad but they straight ganked our show so I definitely needed to be in NYC cause I got to be right next to these people so when they think of doing something, they need to think of me! Not think of their boy who's a producer that live around the corner. But they couldn't do it like we do and that failed and a lot of other things failed that they tried to copy off of us.
And I'm here making moves. I'm still doing "Channel Zero" and directing music videos.

What are you currently working on? Your day-to-day responsibilities?

We're supposed to be doing "The Real: Electric Relaxation Remix" featuring Kanye and Consequence. That's ill. We're supposed to do "The Workout Plan" but I don't know yet. Kanye's got the treatment and we're waiting to hear about that.

We did the 3^rd version "Jesus Walks," which I'm really, really happy about; of course Kanye's "Through The Wire" just came together. I had all the footage, me and Kanye was thinking of concepts and it worked out; Kanye's "Two Words"; and Pitbull's "Culo."

Me and Chike, my co-director, have a certain style. Our videos tell a story. The "Culo" video that you've seen is a rough cut. They liked it so much that they ran with it. We were filming documentary style with 8mm and 16mm and we were going to paint over the negative a la famed documentary filmmaker William Kline. But the label didn't want to waste no more time to even do that process and put out the video. That was cool but it wasn't our final vision. It's got me and Chike's names on it but we want people to really feel our style. With us, you get two videos in one. And we don't call them music videos, rather music films.

My day to day responsibilities include writing treatments and looking over a script from William Morris, but it don't fit what we need. The first film that we come out with got to be the best joint. Right now, we're working on the Ben Wilson movie, a fallen Chicago IL basketball player that was #1 in the nation in '84. Him and Mike were like the best two in the gym. Mike is going into the league and Ben Wilson is entering his senior year of high school.

What inspires/motivates you?

Richard Pryor's Jo Jo Dancer inspired me. Richard Pryor went through it and made it, made it to be him. My upbringing was a little bit different. I came up with my mother and father and they were strict on me luckily. But there were still gangs around and I was an honorary member. I wasn't real deep into it like going to meetings but my boy Mathis' brother called it over there at 103^rd. His name was KC Capone. He was calling it and we had everybody looking up to us. The older guys wanted to take care of us. So I was involved with that. Pryor went through drugs even though I don't do drugs at all. I used to smoke a lil' weed and I still will, but I ain't smoked in 3 months. But that's about it. Richard Pryor did what he did.

Jo Jo Dancer inspired me to do comedy and do everything. And I just found out that Pryor directed and produced the movie when I bought the DVD a few months ago. I'm like "Oh Shit." Maybe this is the reason I'm directing and producing now. Pryor was doing comedy and I did comedy, BET's "Comic View" for two seasons. There's just a lot of similarities.

How do you balance your personal and professional life?

When I'm in the crib, I'm chilling. I invite you guys over, we kick it but I don't like to mix much my personal life and business. It don't mix really. You start messing up that way.

What career achievement are you most proud of?

I'm really proud of "Through The Wire" but "Jesus Walks" is special because of the circumstances. Kanye called us Thursday night saying we were doing my treatment of the video. Ok, let's go. But I didn't know we had to do it that Sunday. And we didn't know until late Friday that it was actually going down. Kanye told us to just use his credit card to get what we needed. Luckily, LA being 3 hours behind, film stores were still open and we had the stuff sent to Chicago. I got a hotel hookup from my girl Nikki and we flew there on Saturday. We had to find location, cast, everything in one day. We started at 8am Sunday and did a video in one day that Chike and I produced and directed. That's what I'm really proud of.

I always say that Jesus directs what I do. Everything turned out. It's got to be him. Of course, it's me in the physical because I'm making it happen, but he's there all the time. It's just amazing how things be happening. So I give it up to him when something comes out great.

What was your biggest personal/career mistake and what did you learn from the experience?

Procrastinating is something I have to work on. Everybody does it and it's the worst thing that you can do. I read Napoleon Hill's Keys To Success and it changed my life. You read the book and you find out all the things you need to be successful. Faith. And procrastination was one of the things that I needed to work on. I still catch myself doing it but I'm learning and starting to move on it better.

Guiding principles?

It's about having faith in God and being a good person. I don't never try to get over on nobody. I don't do nothing for nobody to say I did it for them. If I do something for you, I do it out the kindness of my heart and that's it. And then I forget about it. It's just about being a good person and let God lead. He does everything for me. I have a lot of faith!

Everything happens for a reason. If I meet somebody, it's for a reason. Sometimes you have to dig deep and find out the reason. Or it might be as simple as them telling you something and you remember what they said and next thing you know, you seeing light and realize that's why you meet them. That's how I lead life, I let it lead me.

Have you always believed in a higher power?

Pretty much. When I was little, I always believed in Jesus. When I was little, he was little. As a kid, I'd tell God to tell Jesus goodnight thinking he's the same age as me. That's why I feel that Jesus is funny and that's why "Jesus Walks" is comical. I wanted to show you that you don't need to be afraid of Jesus. He's really cool. That's why we made it like that to show you that he's a good person.

How did you come up with your concept of "Jesus Walks?"

I was just me, Kanye, and poet Malik Yusef talking. Kanye wanted to have Jesus walking with him and he'd be Dave Chappelle. So we started brainstorming and throwing out stuff. What about this, what about that. With my technical background, I'd be like "I don't know about that." Kanye wanted to go to McDonalds and bring kids and have a whole bunch of burgers appear. I nixed that because it was going to cost to get in McDonalds, they gonna want something. I broke it down and made a story out of our ideas.

Birthday? Where you grew up? Where you went to school?

My birthday is January 18, 1971. I'm old than a muthaf*cka ;). I grew up in Chicago IL on the South Side. I went to Percell Julian HS and Northern for a year.

Message Coodie and tell him what you think

Ray Tamarra

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