Since getting a camera that shoots video, I’ve been working with some friends on more personal projects. Yesterday, my friend Chance Lewis released his debut rap album Underdogg. To promote yesterdays show & album release we made a video parodying the tropes and cliches often seen in Kickstarter videos.
We released the video about two weeks ago and received praise from a lot of people. The 100 Block Podcast (Listen for my shout out about 23 minutes in!) guys even came out and said they liked the video publicly, which is proving to be pretty ballsy, since we took on a rather well known artist in the video. It was cool to see that people got the joke.
(He didn’t come to the show.)
Of course there is always a dissenting opinion with these sorts of ultra-controversial projects, and this one was no different. While local liker of music Andrea Fierro thought our parody was “Brilliant,” Tate Law was “confused as to why a hip-hop group has such a problem with a emo pop singer.”
If you think we have a problem with an “emo pop singer” (not my words), then you’re missing the point.
Let’s get real for a moment.
Neither I, or anyone else who helped with the project have any problem with Kickstarter (or the people who use it to fund their art.) Being an artist is expensive and often not lucrative, especially in the early days of an artists career. The problem with so many Kickstarter projects is the way that artists approach their fundraising campaign. Either they treat the life of their project as a do-or-die scenario, where there’s no possible way that they could actually fund their own album (“jobs are scarce! Give us your money!”) or they pretend that the work they’re making is a gift sent from above. It’s like project backers are supposed to be grateful for the chance to pledge.
I loath the idea that there are artist out there who are so sure that what they create is like, the most important thing evar. The beauty of Kickstarter is that friends and fans come together to show that they believe in someone so strongly that they’ll put money on the table, often before any work has been done. This is a great act of faith and should be treated as such. The people who back your project should be treated like gold, not thought of as receivers of a grand gift. As artists, we’re lucky when we can make a living doing what we love to do.
When your Kickstarter takes off and you’re making cash hand over fist, remember that the person being given the gift is you. Don’t fucking forget that.
So, we’re not making fun of raising money on Kickstarter, we’re just trying to say that it sometimes seems like there’s a dearth of humility in the air.
Ok, back to being a dick.
Apparently Tate didn’t think it was funny that we made fun of his band. Obviously we couldn’t let that stand, so Caroline has the idea to make these shirts.
Wassup dude, we take the jokes you can’t take and make meta jokes about your indignation, hype guy.
Like. This. Shit.
(Buy. This. Shit.)
