Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "BEHIND THE SCENES WITH DRAKE'S GO-TO VISUAL ARTIST THEO SKUDRA"

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/AnalyticNotorious Mass Effect - Deep Dive with Drake's Visual Architect, Theo SkudraUnveil the artistic mind behind Drake's iconic image.This segment dives into the world of Theo Skudra, the creative force shaping Drake's visual narrative for nearly a decade.Go beyond the music:Explore Skudra's artistic journey, from childhood influences to his signature photojournalistic style.Witness the rise of a creative partnership: How Skudra built trust with Drake, capturing intimate moments on and off stage.Learn the secrets behind capturing Drake's world: From high-octane tours to introspective scenes, discover Skudra's approach to creating timeless visuals.More than just a photographer:Uncover Skudra's talent as a music video director, bringing Drake's music to life through captivating visuals.Gain insider access to life on the road: The challenges and rewards of documenting world tours like "Summer Sixteen" and "Aubrey and The Three Migos."Explore Skudra's creative process: Collaboration with Drake, the thrill of capturing the unexpected, and the constant push to innovate with new mediums.A glimpse into the future:Discover Skudra's filmmaking aspirations, his journey beyond photography, and the potential for a feature-length directorial debut.Get exclusive insights on potential future projects, including the teased "Mob Ties" music video.This segment is a must-listen for any Drake fan or photography enthusiast seeking a deeper understanding of visual storytelling.Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Starting another episode with my favorite musician because keeping it more than keeping it ate more than 92 means that sometimes you got to tell it like it is. So currently, Drake is going through a tough time to say the least. But to say the most, Drake has one track charting in the top of 100. Drake has one album charting in the top 50. Guess where that one album is all the way at number 50. So it took the 50th spot in the top 50. So safe to say, Drake is having a monumental achievement in the lack of analytical production.

because it is a recession in the Drake Analytic Department. I don't know what it is because it's not for lack of trying because we just got out of one of the biggest hip-hop beats of all time. And then if you look at Kendrick's numbers, this man has two albums charting in the top 50, which is his album, Damn, and then his album, Good Kid, Mad City. and then if we come to his tracks we have Not Like Us which is the sixth most played song in the world euphoria which is the 52nd most played song in the world so he has two tracks charting in the top a hundred and drake currently only has one and guess what that one track is attached to the one and only sexy red so off a sexy red album Their specific track, You My Everything, featuring Drake is Drake's only charting track in 2024.

Now, of course, he just dropped a track with, I forgot her name. He just dropped a track with, I ain't gonna lie, she's irrelevant, so I don't even care to say her name. I'm just trying to find if that track is charting. let me see so that track is also not projected the chart so it is a sad time to be a Drake fan because as far as analytical superiority which we usually hang our hat on it's just the commercialized effect of Drake is not there I see where the track with that one girl will be I totally forgot her name I'm not even trying to be funny I totally forgot what that artist's name was.

Ah, Camilla Cabello, that was her name. Okay. Yeah, the Drake and Camilla Cabello track is nowhere to be found. Isn't that fantastic? July 6th. So these are like projections. These are like in the future and it's still not there. Okay, well, yeah, man.

So hopefully Drake gets together. because right now it just looks like he's kind of being desperate as far as his track releases and it not sticking on the charts so i would advise to take a break and with that being said let's get into the real after four minutes of talking about my favorite artist let's get into the real reason this is even a segment so because of drake having a recession when it comes to performing on the charts and just his overall perception by the public we're going to switch gears and focus on his photographer. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, if you think, just because Drake ain't performing on the charts that we're going to stop talking about him, hey, guess what? You got another thing coming.

So Theo Scudra, who is a Toronto native, has been documenting Drake's life and work for the past eight years. And the reason I'm even covering him is because it's this one video, once again, Analytic Dreams video on Spotify to see the video along with the audio. because of course I would like to talk about Drake even more but he's not performing right now so let's just talk about his photographer and isn't it a great coincidence that his photographer just gave us something to talk about so recently he put up unreleased video of a music of a music video he directed back in 2018 for one of Drake's best albums of all time which is Scorpion so the track mob ties which of course is a a reference track by

Vori which you know came about not too recently and if you if you want to hear my take on that just type in Vori analytic dreams and it should pop up but anyways so the Vorey reference track mob tis which Drake took and ran with

had a music video shot for it by Theo Scudra and basically there was unreleased footage and that unreleased footage is what I have to show for you right now so once again analytic dreams video on Spotify to see the video along with the audio but without further ado here is the unreleased video from the Drake Moptaz music video

Drake music package picked up and brought back here before in the show you got that I need you to get it don't open it and bring it right back give it to him please bless all these people in this circle allow them on the path at their destiny just we appreciate what we get to do every single next to that be a family all right so as you can see is written and directed by Theo Scudra and then you know of course starring a bunch of other people but the biggest thing with this is he released this video June 31st no June 30th yeah he released this yesterday which at the time of me recording this is July 1st so you released this June 30th and this was

unreleased footage for a track off of an album that came back in 2018 so with that being said some of the biggest ways to get around your favorite artists your favorite inspirations just your favorite people in general is to be a photographer because one of the things about being a photographer is everybody needs a photographer it's kind of like being in the marketing department everybody can use some type of assistance when it comes to making the public perception bigger so with that uh well public perception uh more positive but also the public exposure bigger so everybody can use a marketing person a photographer so if you want to get around your favorite just creatives um i would say photography is one of the better ways to do that so anyways uh

theo scudger getting back into his whole uh background has been documenting drake's life for about years and then of course his black and white style is one of the more notable styles that he uses over and over again when he's taking pictures and then another thing to note is something popped up okay another thing to note is that scoge's father was a photographer and his mother was an artist and photography enthusiasts so definitely grew up with a lot of prestigious information when it came to people already in that field. So anyways, shooting with Drake, he talks about meeting him from DeGrasi before the release of Take Care. Talk about being the day one, right? And then after that, his significant

photo of Drake taken during the Marvin's Room video shoot was used as a single for the cover art trust issues. If you don't know what the cover art for, uh, trust issues looks like let me pull it up for you uh let's see trust issues yeah i think is this one right here all right so this picture right here is the picture that he took for trust issues i thought it was going to be that marvin's room picture i don't know why i thought it's going to be like i don't really recognize that picture but hey it's whatever you know so anyways scudger joined drake on tour or remind you this is drake's photographer for like the past eight years.

So it's not like just some random guy that just hopped into Drake's camp. So Scudra joined Drake on tour, starting with the Would You Like a Tour back in 2013, back when, you know, he put Kendrick and A's at Rakian and only for them to turn on him in the future. Hey, that's besides a point, right? Like, who wants to deal with facts? So anyways, Drake's life on tour and his creative process, obviously Scudra was very involved with and saw his day-to-day.

happenings and how he dealt with his his his preparation for a tour and of course with a lot of unpredictable situations destinations he wanted to highlight that through his uh photography and just captured that whole uh journey by drake so with that he also has ties to toronto because he's from there he's a toronto native and it remains his favorite place to work of course and his upbringing and exposure to in Toronto and just various films and just art in general when it comes to Toronto has shaped his artistic vision and then some of other things about shooting Drake's most memorable moments he includes some of his world tours and then of course the music video productions one of the music videos that just shows you which is unreleased footage from the mob ties music video from back in

2018 he's talking about scudra he's directed videos such as non-stop when to say when chicago freestyle wore showcased a lot of different styles in his photography and his documentary like style um i think i said style twice but y'all get what i'm saying right um a lot of behind the scenes is done by him as far as the photo shoes and things that nature and i also have a video that this was released like eight years ago, I believe. Let me see. How long ago was this? This came out.

This came out. Why is it so hard to find the date for this? Oh, four years ago. I'm tripping. It was right there the whole time. Yeah, so four years ago, this, it was like behind the scenes. Basically, the title of the video, if you wanted to look it up, is on tour with Drake, through the lens of Tutsi Slide Director.

They call him Tutsi Slide Director. That's so disrespectful. Director Theo Scudra. That's crazy. So yeah, I wanted to play this, kind of get a glimpse or give you a glimpse on what he sounds like, what he looks like and kind of his breakdown of just how being around Drake was very, you know, very pivotal for him.

Because one thing about Drake is he's the greatest, he's one of the greatest musicians. to ever do it. So that should not be taken lightly as everybody in the mom wants to be a rapper if you're coming from a certain background. But Drake has been able to put hip hop on a global scale when it comes to getting other demographics involved to the point where now, because of Drake, it's kind of like the Caitlin Clark effect, hip hop has more monetary value for other musicians. And it's simply because of the other demographics brought in by who, you guessed it, Drake.

Just like M&M did way back in the day when it was JZ, when it was Nause. Not to say there wasn't real rappers carrying the culture, but as far as the masses and different demographics being engaged, you know the type of rappers that people gravitate towards. I mean, why y'all think Jack Hart, why y'all think Tommy Richmond has the fifth most play song in the world right now with a million dollar baby? I mean, there's a reason for it. And I don't think it's a bad thing. You need your Caitlin Clarks to make the whole league more profitable. So, hey, with that being said, let's get into the video of Theo Scudra right now of him talking about Drake and his, what he does. I'm going to skip around, of course, because there's a lot of dramatic moments throughout this.

Like one, I cramped up into that part where he was at the bar going like this. I'm cramped up into this corner and I like got a frame. Oh, once again, analytic dreams video on Spotify to see the video along with the audio. Aside, I was just kind of like one eye there and I was like, that's eight feet, that's 10 feet, that's 12 feet, always back to, like now I'm DJ 4. But you just, you just do it. I get to shoot constantly. Like, that's one of the blessings of this job is I'm in a constant state of production all the time. My name's Theo Scudra.

I'm a director, a photographer and a cinematographer. Here ago, we were having dinner in Vegas and he was just like, what do you think about falling back from photography a lot this year and just filming way more. Yeah, can I, can we shoot on film? And he's like, can you? And I was like, yeah. And then went home and started figuring out if that was possible. And we realized quickly that that camera was the only camera

that was going to allow us to do it. Finding out that was the only camera we could use, then you didn't find out how rare it is. You can't get those things anymore. So like, and we had to start shooting soon. And yeah, luckily fate sort of let that thing land in my lap. Like in an interesting space. I have an access that I think enables me to shoot something that's, I guess, more authentic,

which I think is a pretty like original working relationship. Right now they're showing all type of behind-the-scenes footage of a Drake tour. Have something like that that's been developed over such a long period of time. I don't even think he notices the camera much anymore. It's pretty natural what we got up to. I think that what we've always gravitated towards is much more of like a kind of docu-style music video, like nonstop, which, was just as simple a concept as we're gonna be in London next week. We got wireless and a good party after.

Let's go shoot a music video. This New York video, I think that a lot of it just had to do with leaning in heavily to that classic New York thing of the bridge in the background. We're not trying to claim creative genius over any of that. That's clearly been done by any artist with a 5D on a rooftop in New York. But I think that seeing him in that atmosphere

and seeing him doing that stuff, it'll always be something a little bit different. A lot of the time it's me just with a camera shooting as if it's a documentary. Once we start shooting and shooting and shooting, we can figure out what the flow of the video's gonna be, what we need more of, and when we feel like we've got what we need, then it's usually a wrap.

Nothing new. Still, this is nothing new. I started doing that when I was a kid. My dad was a photographer, his dad was a photographer as well. It was just something that was always in the household. So, you know, I had like Nikon Dinner Place Mats, and cameras and lenses lying around all over the place that were almost like toys I'd play with.

I do remember early on, like coming back from trips or a vacation, having my dad look at it and kind of critique it almost like an editorial department would and saying, oh, that's greater, that's greater, that's shit, you know, like, try this, try that. It was the beginning of me thinking about photography as something more than just a hobby. And then that sort of developed into filmmaking,

and filmmaking took on a life of its own, All that led to film school, and film school led to short films, which led to meeting actors in the city, which led to me meeting Drake. On Marvin's room, I took a photo of him that I wasn't really supposed to take. The director snapped at me, and he said, no, no, Drake said, no, it's all good, don't worry about it, just send me that photo, and I did, and he ended up using it for the single art for trust issues. And from then on, his creative director just said,

yeah, just keep coming out and keep taking photos. And then it was in a set of headlines, he was like, so, do you want to come on? There's something that happens on tour, you know, it gets very repetitive. You're doing 70 shows over two months. And after a while, you know, you start taking the same photo and that kind of causes you to, like, start venturing out and trying to find something different. And that was something that was different, you know, the idea of this guy by himself, sweeping up an entire stadium of confetti.

That was one moment that just felt very in the wake of the rush of that show and that chaos. And you can imagine the before and after was this, like, crazy confetti drop of... drop of fireworks and light. And then there's this guy after sort of in the reality of that. You sort of know where everybody's going to be in the process of a show. You know, you know the warm-up's going to be. By the way, I probably should have talked about the runtime for this video. It's not that long.

It's only eight minutes. We're almost through with it. So don't think we're about to be here for like an hour or two. Of course, you know, that's not what we do over here. I've just thrown this video in there because it's short. So it's almost over. There is this guy after. after sort of in the reality of that.

You sort of know where everybody's going to be in the process of a show. You know where the warm-up's going to be, you know where the walkout's going to be, and 30-40 shows in, you're starting to figure out ways of maybe capturing it a little bit differently. That shot of the dancers walking to the stage as a product of that, you know,

again, knowing that they're going to walk that line, seeing those arrows was something that I remember running ahead of the pack to go get and then just getting one chance at that one shot. I knew that he was going to be a little bit of that one shot. He was going to go down into the staging area and I guess it was just a moment that lasted all of one second that I was just lucky to capture. I never know when to skip because I never know when he's going to start talking to not. When you're thinking about an audience, the last thing you're thinking about is their feet.

But there's, I guess, a moment in that frame when everybody's, it's not just up off the seat, it's like on the seat. And I think that that's something that I really love about it. And it's also just like the contrast of it in black and white, the numbering and labeling. And you can see the organization of how a crowd is laid out. And then there's just a good kind of cross-section of people and genre within the shoes that they wear. It just feels like there's a lot going on to it, but it's all within one frame. There's a photo of Drake and Cole that I really like. Two guys who I think are just like the greatest at what they do and the most authentic moment possible.

Catching them in like just a very low-key moment, very casual, friendly moment to me, I think is like a rare thing to see. I was really happy with that one. Jermaine's still in the hip-hop timeout just in case you was wondering. When you're holding a camera up, you're definitely not experiencing the moment. I feel like the more fun everyone else is having, the more I'm working. The vibe that will be a part of in London is way different than the one that will be a part of in L.A. The reason we travel to these different places is always different. You know, it could be to catch a vibe in a different city because of the vibe that that city brings.

or if we're going to like, you know, Saudi Arabia and Dubai, you know, there's always sort of motivation to being at a place like that that I guess changes like the style of what I do and the work that I do, but Toronto is home no matter what. I'd still feel like you might get the best of certain things in other cities if it's like Paris for architecture or New York and L.A. for food, but I feel like when it all comes together, Toronto, it's just the greatest place on earth. and I think that's it. Yeah, that's basically it. Yeah.

All right. So basically, I played all that to say this. So the biggest thing to bring it full circle is that Drake needs to take a break. Obviously, his analytical performance on the charts is not as great as it used to be. And as a Drake fan, I would probably say that this is just a moment in time where your analytical performance. will not be what you wanted to be as far as musically so this direction as far as Theo Scudra always being around you always wanting to put out stuff just to encaptivate your career and his future ambitions of making feature length

projects but also wanting to remain focus well also wanting you to be his uh no also wanting his photography to a career to be centered around you as far as talking about drake i think that is the perfect solution for what you are going through so by taking a break you can get into another creative medium which is maybe making a documentary maybe making a short film whether it's a movie it doesn't even have to be a documentary you can make a movie with I mean, you're a Drake. You can make a short film. You can make a movie, which is a full-length film.

Or you could make a docu-series of not yourself, but maybe something around music. Like, it's so many different realms you can go into. And I think for Theo Scudra, he could be very pivotal in that transition into taking a break on solely music, taking a break this year and focusing on a different. medium which could be you know a film or some type of film that you put that you and him put together so that's the biggest reason i even wanted to talk about this i know i joked at the beginning talking about me just wanted to have a drink topic at the beginning of my episode but i think it's really important that drake recognizes the state of the culture and capitalizes off of people not wanting to hear from him musically because i don't think

that means people don't want to hear from him it's just right now we don't want to hear music so to bring it for a circle again i keep bringing it both for a circle right um the tracks with sexy red the the woguan delilah the the track with camilla cabello those seem like desperate attempts to keep your name relevant in the music landscape. And as we've seen throughout the history, if you don't necessarily have to be a full transition, but if you don't pivot to something to where you can have two mainstream, impactful creative visions, then I think that you put yourself in a box to making people, think that you can only impact the masses through music,

which I think is far from the case as being a Drake stand. So take a break from music, transition into like a short film, documentary, movie, something like that. And Theo Scudra, in all intensive purposes, seems to be your best bet as far as an executive producer or probably the main director. So with that being said, that's all I've really had for this segment. Click my link, sure, in my bio.

Let me know one of my social medias. What do you think about Theo Scroodra and Drake's relationship? And would you like to see more video of the Mob Ties music video shot by Theo Scudra? And also my last question, and I'm asking you all type of questions. What do you think Drake should do in the lowest analytical performance of his career?