We Turned the Most Hated into the most respected.
Hip hop culture has expanded beyond just boom baps and rap beefs. It has permeated every household, subject matter, and topic. One of the most critical voices of that culture is none other than Joe Budden. Former MC now industry leading podcaster, Joe has made a name for himself by looking at the hip hop community through a microscope and delivering articulate, provocative, and often polarizing opinions. He’s not afraid to criticize his friends or even his former boss.
When I came on board to work directly with Mr. Combs, I was tasked to partner with Joe and create a platform for which his voice could be truly heard and understood, and not just be seen as some Howard Stern-esque shock jock.
First, we decided that in order for Joe to be well received, he needed to be fallible. Meaning that we needed opposing opinions as strong, if not stronger, to disagree with him and give the opposing side a voice. So we landed on having a 4 person panel with people from various backgrounds.
We went through hundreds of co-hosts and shots over a dozen screen tests, but we finally landed on 3 co-hosts that can represent the diverse point of views, as well battle in verbal fisticuffs with Joe, which is no easy feat.
At that point we had to produce an entire show. I led the set design, logo design, digital and social plan, etc.
Even though it was my first time creating a TV show from the very beginning, I couldn’t have got a better opportunity. The show premiered on September 10th, with the full 1 hour episode on YouTube already hitting 1.2 million views and it looks to be gaining traction because Episode 2 is already at 500,000 views in 24 hours.
Here’s some clips from Episode 2. You can watch entire episodes here.
Lastly, here’s the opening title sequence I created for the show.