Fling on an adidas hoodie and boogie-woogie-woogie with me
Getting Random with Sov...It's a wideheld belief that every once in a while, you have to push yourself way outside your boundaries to in order to see just what you are capable of. Most people test their limits by going on kibbutzes or training for decathalons.
The other day, I was in a rap video.
Yep, that is me above hanging with the Lady Sovereign, 19-year-old grime sensation here in Britain, taken at the end of a very looong day of shooting. The experience was nothing short of surreal, which was only exacerbated by sleep deprivation and the typical chaos of video production.
"Woah, woah, wait. Back up. How the hell did you, Miss Aleksandra, end up in a rap video???"
Chosen to be in it, no less... well, I must thank Quinn (the king of music mailing lists) for forwarding the email saying that anyone in the London area and available all day on Wednesday could email their photo and details in the hopes of being chosen to be in Lady Sovereign's new video, 'Hoodie'. I was in Oxford at the time, but thought it too funny to pass up, so I took some ridiculous photo in a mirror and sent it from the library at Linacre College. Nothing about the picture said street-wise hoodrat, so I wasn't surprised when I didn't hear back from the production company.
Until Tuesday afternoon. When Maria called to tell me I had been chosen to be in Sov's 'gang', and would spend the whole day with her. Oh, and could I get to Lewisham Shopping Centre tomorrow morning at 4:30am? (to equate into Vancouver terms: if Hampstead is London's Kerrisdale, Lewisham is London's Surrey. And about that far away...) So....no, don't think that's possible. "6am, then?"
Hmmm. 6am I cannot pass up - I still had no idea what I was supposed to do in this 'gang', but I said yes. Sure, I still had to tell my boss and bail out of all next day's meetings, but if you can't play hooky on an unpaid internship, when can you??
Hmmm. 6am I cannot pass up - I still had no idea what I was supposed to do in this 'gang', but I said yes. Sure, I still had to tell my boss and bail out of all next day's meetings, but if you can't play hooky on an unpaid internship, when can you??
Fortunately, they were still looking for shorter girls for the extra bit in the afternoon (Lady Sovereign is only 5'1") so hilarious housemate Monique from Cape Town was more than willing to tag along. (She loves hip-hop, plus wants to be a director, so she was superjazzed about going.) We managed to drag our asses out of bed at 4am to get to there by 6am and meet the 'gang':
- 'Shocks' - Lady Sovereign's biggest fan, with whom she *believes* she is pretty tight;
- Danielle and Simone, whom Sov calls "The Stalkers";
- Carly and Esther, two tough looking ghetto-candy girls from Brighton;
- ....and me.
They like Monique's look, though, and decide to add her as a seventh gang member, which was great. Now. we were told to come without hair or makeup done, as all that would be taken care of. Turns out no hair gets done, and makeup consists of concealer, eyeliner under the eye, and clear gloss. See, what they *meant* was that it wouldn't matter as we'd have our hoods up the entire time.
So here we are, we look like crap and we're tired as hell. Then some photographer girl asks "The Hoodies" for a promo shot. As we huddle up for the photo, I realize - I am not the most photogenic person (as most of you know) and I've only come as far as I have by copping a few signature poses. All of which are cute and smiley.
Cute and smiley ain't gonna cut it today.
The photo flash goes off with my face in the most ridiculous of expressions.
Oh, I am so screwed today.
So it's pretty clear early on that I am going to look like absolute crap in this video - good thing she's only big in England... "Oh well, at least the gang will be dancing, and I can look cool in that..."
At about 9am, The Hoodies have our first scene in the mall and the video storyline is finally explained to us - basically, we're Sov's gang and we spend the video chasing this lady through the mall.
They want me to run.
Like a gang member.
Oh good lord.
It never got worse than that moment, but it didn't get much better either. The girls were sweet as hell, but it was pretty obvious I was "not like the others" - ie, I'd finished high school. To be fair, some of them hadn't finished high school becuase they were only still 17 - why it blew their minds that I was in my mid-20s. But we all got along, the shoot was hilarious, and I got some great photos of those bright red hoodies. Though needless to say, us few 20-somethings - me, Chris (the website diary camera guy) and Katherine (the producer's intern) - gravitated towards each other.
The extras came in the afternoon, and were suited up for the big final scene. Which was - yep, you guessed it - more running. Basically, the extras were all the people who signed up who weren't chosen for the gang (which baffled me anew - what about me was better than some of these girls who were shorter than me?...) and they were a ton of fun as well. There was one peculiar extra - a supershy girl who wore her hoodie tied up tight a la South Park. She wouldn't talk to anyone, so Sov named her Kenny. So if you start to see British hoodlums tying up their hoods, you know who started it...
Lady Sovereign (or 'Sov' as we all called her - that was surreal in itself) was super cute. She had been up late recording, so she was pretty good-natured for an overtired hoodrat celebrity. Unfortunately, what with all the worrying about how to look tough and sprint without looking like an ass, I only spoke with her a few times the whole day - and every time forgot to mention about her coming to Vancouver. Oops. But I did find out that she was going to be opening for The Go!Team that Friday, so I'd see her in concert for sure. (Edit: Which I did last night - she was trashed in a super-amusing way, played with a live band that really doesn't do much for her sound, and yes, she did recognize me when she played Hoodie.)
So there, my big claim to British celluloid fame. The next day, I was back at work in posh Hampstead, putting together outcome-based evaluations and it felt like it hadn't even been me running (and running and running) through the Lewisham car park 18 hours earlier. But I've still got that red Adidas hoodie like a badge of honour to remind me that if I was able to make it there, I can make it anywhere...
The video for Lady Sovereign's 'Hoodie' comes out in November. It will likely be posted up on the S.O.V.'s website, along with the video diary that Chris shot. Hopefully, I will not be too embarassed by either...
At about 9am, The Hoodies have our first scene in the mall and the video storyline is finally explained to us - basically, we're Sov's gang and we spend the video chasing this lady through the mall.
They want me to run.
Like a gang member.
Oh good lord.
It never got worse than that moment, but it didn't get much better either. The girls were sweet as hell, but it was pretty obvious I was "not like the others" - ie, I'd finished high school. To be fair, some of them hadn't finished high school becuase they were only still 17 - why it blew their minds that I was in my mid-20s. But we all got along, the shoot was hilarious, and I got some great photos of those bright red hoodies. Though needless to say, us few 20-somethings - me, Chris (the website diary camera guy) and Katherine (the producer's intern) - gravitated towards each other.
The extras came in the afternoon, and were suited up for the big final scene. Which was - yep, you guessed it - more running. Basically, the extras were all the people who signed up who weren't chosen for the gang (which baffled me anew - what about me was better than some of these girls who were shorter than me?...) and they were a ton of fun as well. There was one peculiar extra - a supershy girl who wore her hoodie tied up tight a la South Park. She wouldn't talk to anyone, so Sov named her Kenny. So if you start to see British hoodlums tying up their hoods, you know who started it...
Lady Sovereign (or 'Sov' as we all called her - that was surreal in itself) was super cute. She had been up late recording, so she was pretty good-natured for an overtired hoodrat celebrity. Unfortunately, what with all the worrying about how to look tough and sprint without looking like an ass, I only spoke with her a few times the whole day - and every time forgot to mention about her coming to Vancouver. Oops. But I did find out that she was going to be opening for The Go!Team that Friday, so I'd see her in concert for sure. (Edit: Which I did last night - she was trashed in a super-amusing way, played with a live band that really doesn't do much for her sound, and yes, she did recognize me when she played Hoodie.)
So there, my big claim to British celluloid fame. The next day, I was back at work in posh Hampstead, putting together outcome-based evaluations and it felt like it hadn't even been me running (and running and running) through the Lewisham car park 18 hours earlier. But I've still got that red Adidas hoodie like a badge of honour to remind me that if I was able to make it there, I can make it anywhere...
The video for Lady Sovereign's 'Hoodie' comes out in November. It will likely be posted up on the S.O.V.'s website, along with the video diary that Chris shot. Hopefully, I will not be too embarassed by either...
posted by Aleksandra @ 3:53 PM
6 Comments:
what! that is SOOO cool Alecks, i am green with envy right now!!! hahahaha
Way to represent!! The Eastsiders are proud of you!
Good lord I can't believe you are going to be in a hip hop video! =) Can't wait to see it!
holy crap, that is the coolest thing i the whole world ever.
"For someone who grew up listening to her mum's Salt and Peppa albums on a cassette walkman, coming face-to-face with Jay Z was...a big occasion..." Good lord I feel old.
That's amazing, I'm glad you braved the early-morning shoot to have that experience, even if it wasn't the most comfortable for you.
In other brush-with-fame stories, I just found out that my friend Lyndsey's cousin used to date Stuart from Belle and Sebastian...
Tenny!! Maggie!! Hello! (I love finding out who's reading this blog!)
Quinn: and it's all thanks to you, really!
Mike: It was definitely worth it. Now I can't wait to see how they work to fit it all together...
...and Lyndsey's cousin's name isn't Isobel, by any chance?
Hey Aleks! This is Rachel that you met briefly at the Radiohead show at Thunderbird. It turns out we know a lot of the same people, and Quinn linked me to your blog. I was greatly amused by your story about being a chav for a day.
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