Coodie & Chike : Uncensored

MUSA Where are you from?

COODIE I’m from Chicago, Illinois. The south side born and raised.

CHIKE I’m from New Orleans, Uptown.

MUSA Tell us what it was like growing up?

COODIE When you’re in it. It was wonderful. They called my neighborhood the Wild Hundreds. So I seen a lot growing up but I had my mother and father. A two parent home and my three sisters. Actually my family was like The Cosby Show. Exactly the same age and everything, I was Theo. Then you had the influence of the neighborhood. My friends and the things we used to do. You know that I’m not proud of but I was a kid and got through it.

CHIKE It was kind of similar. I grew up in what was considered a pretty wild neighborhood but when you’re a kid and that’s all that you know you kind of don’t feel it like that. I enjoyed it. A lot laughs and fun times on the stoop. My mother did a great job of sheltering me of whatever was violent happening around me. Of course you see it, feel it, hear it. But it wasn’t at the doorstep as much. Because my family wasn’t involved in it. Also on the block they bring it to me. Because when they would see me they would say, “Not him.” My mother sent me to a private school. So I had this juxtaposition of growing up in this all Black neighborhood in this city, then going out the suburbs and now being the only Black kid out of thousands of white students. An experience that I’m thankful for. Thankful for both experiences.

COODIE We couldn’t go into an all white neighborhood without being called a nigger. Chicago is the most segregated city in America. Martin Luther King said it in a speech. He never seen that much hate in people’s eyes. So as kids we used to ride through the white neighborhood to go to the plaza. And they would call us muggers and through rocks at us. We used ride through it for fun, it got to that point. But you know I wouldn’t take nothing back.

MUSA Who were your childhood heroes?

COODIE Sidney Poitier, definitely when it came to film. I used to love his movies. Bill Cosby and Sidney. All the movies like “Let’s Do It Again.” But the main person that me going to everything that I’m doing at this moment is Richard a Pryor. I watched the movie “JoJo Dancer” not knowing that Richard Pryor, wrote, directed, produced and starred in it. I was just looking at the comedy part. I started doing comedy but then I fell in love with film. And also Bernie Mac was my mentor. He was the first person to bring me on stage when I went to the Open mic. He mentored me along with actor Jimmy Spinks from “Car Wash”.

CHIKE I was more like a sports dude coming up. I always had the typical young Black kid wanting to be in the NBA. So I looked to a lot of athletes like Walter Payton from football. Magic Johnson at the time and Michael Jordan of course. Then I got in art and one of the first paintings that inspired me was of a basketball player. My mom would take me every Sunday to the cathedral in the French Quarter and we would walk by all the art galleries. And I would always stop and look at that painting of the player on the concrete shooting a basket ball through a makeshift hoop. The way the basketball player was painted it had so much soul in it. The artist name was Ernie Barnes. He would become a mentor in our lives. But it was all in that art, what I liked about basketball in one aspect but then it connected and resonated with what I liked about art. So that was my first influencer that brought those two together. But as far as film, it was “Boyz N the Hood, Menace 2 Society”. Spike Lee films. I was heavily affected by music videos. I started getting into those. I loved Chris Cunningham’s work because it was different to me. I also loved Tim Burtons work, “Beetle Juice”. But then I started to like Hype Williams and his music videos. I was into the clash of what Hip Hop was doing but then what was alternative. But all the white kids in my school into Heavy Metal so music videos became very inspiring to me not just the music but the visual.

COODIE Real quick. When Chike mentioned Ernie Barnes you know I wanted to get in.<br /> ( they laugh)

CHIKE Yes it’s really Coodie’s story.

COODIE I should of said him. Because Ernie Barnes was definitely one of them. Because you’d watch “Good Times” and these paintings and you’d see JJ, who reminded you of you at the time. And this one thing that we say, “Don’t let your imagination get in the way of Gods manifestation”. So me imagining JJ paintings on my wall to the next thing me and Chike having breakfast with Ernie Barnes.

MUSA Coodie your inroad into entertainment was through comedy. Tell us about that?

COODIE I started with comedy. Bernie Mac was the first to bring me onstage at The Cotton Club in Chicago. It was one of those spots where dope dealers would be in their. R. Kelly, Michael Jordan, Pippin everybody would come. Monday night Bernie Mac would be hosting and Jimmy Spinks would be at the bar right next to the stage. The stage was right in front of the door. So if you came in bogus dressing the comics would let you have it. One time this comic named Trifling started talking about this dope dealer. The dealer went up on the stage and beat up Trifling. You amazing comics like a Deon Cole that would be in this one room. But it was Bernie Mac room. One time Bernie was talking to Michael Jordan. He called me over there to tell me something. I felt Michael Jordan knew me like I knew him. You knew everything about Jordan. But it was the comedy that drew me in.

CHIKE In my senior year, I had this epiphany. I wind up playing on an AU team and it was then I realized wasn’t going to have that career in basketball. AU team was the better players and they were just on a whole other level. I realized I needed to focus more on the art. I went to Rhode Island School of Art Design. It was there that I cultivated my palette for design and high art. It was in college I was influenced by the Hype Williams music videos. I started experimenting shooting music videos in college. I got into motion graphic and it was the first time a university offered it as a major. A combination of video and graphic design. It was then I started thinking about MTV. Because they were offering these types of positions. For designers to package yo the different shows. But my mentality was if I could get on MTV I could meet different artists and do music videos. What’s so amazing is my first job out college at MTV. At MTV I wind up meeting Coodie and Kanye and we wind up doing “Through The Wire”.

MUSA Coodie how did you transition from comedy to filmmaking?

COODIE Danny Sorge had a camera and was like let’s start a public access show called Channel Zero. He was like we are to going concerts and interview people outside the concerts. I’m like I’m down for that but let’s go inside the concerts. Interview the artists and the people on the outside. So we joined forces and I was the host. He also taught me how to use the camera. So I was going around filming that’s how I ran into Kanye. I was like I’m going to do Hoop Dreams on Kanye. Follow his journey and see where he goes. When Kanye moves to New York I made my way to New York. Kanye was in Newark I was in Brooklyn. We would be at Baselne with Jay Z and all over New York. And MTV when we did You Hear First on MTV News. Jasmine Richardson my producer at the time introduced me to Chike. I remember Chike was doing motion graphics. Me and Kanye had an idea but didn’t know how to execute it. So I hit up Chike. I said, “We ain’t got no money but we got a great idea”. Chike jumped right on board.

MUSA So is that how Coodie & Chike came about working together?

CHIKE Pretty much. We were kickin it for a while before did anything together. Coodie was really hanging out with my roommate who was working at HBO at the time. My roommate was an introvert and he didn’t go out that much. But Coodie had him out in the streets. So I was like this guy got to be cool if he has him out like this. When he showed me Channel Zero I could really see how talented he was. So we started talking about film and things we wanted to do in film. That’s when we realized that we were on the same page. So that’s when I thought the trust in each other went even faster and started hanging out. Our trust in each other taste was n film.

MUSA So how did Coodie & Chike become a filmmaking duo? After doing “Through the Wire” with Kanye was it just an instant thing?

CHIKE I was a part of a filmmaking collective with a few other people from MTV. We young, we hustling. We had this multimedia company we created. When Coodie came along I was like we gotta put him on. But Coodie understood his value, he wasn’t going to just come in this collective. We already had a hierarchy to this collective based on when people came in and who started it. Coodie understood his value, if I come on I want a piece of the pie. ( laughs) I got it and understood. I valued how he valued himself in the same manner. We had already worked together and I saw how people reacted to him a lot. I was like either we bringing Coodie in like this or I’m moving on with Coodie. They didn’t get it the same way I did. So I left. That’s officially how we became Coodie and Chike.

MUSA What were the beginnings for the business of Coodie and Chike like?

CHIKE Like I told you before I was really inspired by Hip Hop. Growing up in downtown New Orleans with bounce music so Hip Hop was super close to me. So I always loved Hip Hop but I was inspired by elements of going to private school and other forms of music and ways their music was being visualized. In our videos what I didn’t see was a hybrid. Our music with but visually an out the box manner. I was mad that we don’t do that here with Hip Hop and was I passionate about taking the game into that arena. They were being dominated and over saturated by all these videos that was degrading to women and to me just very low brow. It wasn’t like we can’t have those but to me it was like those were bottom of the barrel creative wise. You can have people who can have some more respect for their craft in the music if the videos were way more creative and had more thought to it. Coodie and I had many conversations about where we wanted to take things. Even after we did “Through the Wire” and how successful as it was people still wanted us to do the typical video. Our first video was far from typical so what made you think we would want to do this video. We passed up a lot of money we knew the type of visual impact we wanted to make. What we wanted our names to stand for. And so we started aligning with artists that met the same criteria. But I still feel like overall as far as the time that we were getting into Hip Hop we wanted to make that change. Hip Hop didn’t want that change. Regardless Hip Hop wanted to be exactly what it was. Hip Hop, rap, the industry at that time whatever you were promoting with all those crazy videos of like the girls half naked and all the violence all the labels that is what they wanted.

COODIE And they wanted it for a real low budget.

MUSA What were some of the videos you did?

CHIKE One of most popular was “Window Seat” with Erykah Badu. We did Pitbulls first video “Culo”. Mos Def was one my favorite collabs. We did Lupe Fiasco. It’s hard to name because we launched our own network doing over two hundred videos for artists. Joey Badass, Rick Ross, not every artists but definitely hundreds of artists.

MUSA So you start a channel, doing videos the way you want too. What made you decide to go into the documentary arena? And what was your first one?

COODIE I can say this my whole thing was documentary from coming Chicago documenting Kanye. Then we did a doc for the gangster called Nooney G out of Chicago. He was this gangster that became a politician. We lost creative control because he was a gangster. He “gangstered” the movie. So that’s how we started between that and then a Honda commercial we did with an agency that gangstered our creative. We started our company Creative Control and named it that for that very reason. We started Creative Control TV with Damon Dash. Then Ben Wilson the basketball player out of Chicago in 1984 was the number one basketball player in the nation. He and Michael Jordan were the best two players that summer. Then one night before his first game in his senior year he got shot and killed. His little brother wanted us to do the movie. We thought we about to make it. We signed with William Morris. We about to blow up. We about to do some movies because that was the goal. To do some movies. We had a screenplay written by Kenny Young. Since we were first time directors we could never get the movie sold. We were up for many movies like “Next Day Air” but being first time directors we would never get it.

MUSA So you go from Benj to doing MLK, one of the most important icons of all time. How did that happen?

CHIKE We took that same energy from Benji right into that. That’s why we feel God direct our videos because we feel this stuff fell in our lap. My girlfriend tells me that your gift will make room for you. I think because we’re operating from our gift God is working with us. Then all these projects came, the King project, the Muhammad Ali project. These weren’t projects we conceived and said let’s go pitch these. Like Stephon Marbury. We had all these other projects we trying to get off the ground. Which is major because these are icons. We became the documentary directors of icons. You know what I’m sayin?

MUSA You won a NAACP Image for Muhammad Ali: The Peoples Champ and your latest is on Netflix. A Kid From Coney Island on Stephon Marbury. Tell us about that?

COODIE We always say, “Don’t let your imagination get in the way of Gods manifestation.” I bring that up because Chike wanted to an NBA player and the next thing you know he’s documenting the first African American to play in the NBA, Earl Lloyd. Got to meet and kick it with him Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson. Then the next thing you know we doing Stephon Marbury. We on the court doing a thing for Michael Jordan. Chike you made it.<br /> ( they both laugh)

MUSA What’s next for the dynamic duo?

CHIKE We right now are sifting through a lot scripted projects. Like long form projects. We’re developing our network. Have our own distribution platform and launch projects in a unique way. We’re still so far from where we’re trying to go. We have our head down, everyday we are just creating. Moving on Faith. Moving with God.

MUSA You mention God and faith. How important is God and faith to what you are doing?<br /> COODIE: How important is God and faith to the Earth? ( they both laugh) Everything. Without the Creator, who created everything in abundance. Think about air. What would we do without air?

MUSA What would you tell the next Coodie and Chike? Young filmmakers coming up.

CHIKE If you can believe and conceive you can achieve. You gotta do what we did. You can’t think about like the bigness of what actually end up doing. It would be overwhelming. If somebody told you to climb a thousand stairs and you look up at how far you have to go you’d probably defeat yourself you walked one step. You put your head down and just go and before you know it you’re at the top of those steps. Allow God to get you there. You gotta have faith.

COODIE One of the main things that Chike is saying is that is you got to know Is you wanna get up to the top of those thousand stairs. You got to have a destination. And then you start taking your steps to that destination. But you have to know where you want to go.

CHIKE Two things Faith and work. Without faith the work is dead. With vision comes provision but you have to have the vision first then God will provide the provision.

COODIE You gotta know you wanna get upto the thousand stair. Then you have to put it into action you to start walking up those stairs. You gotta have faith that you gonna get to the top of those thousand stairs...even if you fall a couple of times.