Director X Talks About His Independent Project “Love Drunk” Starring Rosa Acosta

By Tai Saint-Louis

Let's face it: the rap video game isn't exactly the most innovative field these days. But Director X, formerly Little X, has always been a cut above and a step ahead of the game. So when Spike TV wanted to create next level imagery to promote the addition of the HBO series Entourage to their line-up, a visual that would ring true to its hip-hop soundtrack, they called on the Toronto native. But even he couldn't imagine what he would do with two takes of the ever-talented Rosa Acosta. It all started with a girl dancing in a car…

KING: Tell us how this "Independent Project" come about?

DIRECTOR X: It's just something we did. That's actually the Entourage car from [the show's opening sequence]. So, we're shooting the commercial, and we have Rosa do a dance in the car. But Rosa is pretty talented. So, she goes and choreographs something in her head. That's what I mean: she's a next level type of girl. And she does this. It's only two takes, something we shot at the end of the day. When I was in the edit I realized this is gold, it's so good I had to do something else with it. So I had Snoop's CD, grabbed ["Luv Drunk" featuring The-Dream"], I put the two together, it looked like that's what she was dancing to, and boom: we got the independent project.

So is Rosa the star of the video or is the car the star?

C'mon, Rosa. It's nice that the car is from Entourage, it's f***ing amazing that Rosa is doing what she's doing on it.

But this was from her actual sequence in the commercial, right?

Oh yeah, you see a clip [of this dance] in the Spike commercial. The concept of the commercial is these girls rapping about the fact that they were once in Entourage. The commercial has all kinds of crazy stuff, Gary Busey's in there…it's just kind of insane. [Rosa's] platform was to dance in the car. And normally when you tell a girl that, they just freestyle it away.  But she actually planned something out. I haven't seen any girls do anything like that.

So is this the beginning of something bigger? Or is this a one-and-done type of deal?

One and done. I didn't plan to do it, but I did it. The world deserves to see all that footage, so there you go.

Your most recent actual music video was for Drake's "HYFR." How do you feel about the feedback you've gotten from that so far?

It's great! It's always good to see people get real excited about a music video. So, to see that kind of response is great.

Were you concerned that there was going to be any backlash about having DJ Khaled and Baby in a synagogue during a Bar Mitzvah?

Nah, we weren't doing anything disrespectful. We knew we were showing everything [accurately]. It was a little wild, but… Drake wasn't making fun of himself [or] his religion. We were just there. Just the whole idea of it is funny to people.

So on your list of all the videos you've done, does HYFR fall in the top five?

I think we should put that in the top five, yeah. The new generation…

And the video with Rosa?

This is in it's own category, cause it's just a special kind of project. It's not your average music video.

You've set more than a few trends in the Hip-Hop video world. Do you see someone dropping a video of a girl in a car for their soon anytime soon?

Let's see what happens and how people respond to it when we put this out. We all know what Snoop and Dream look like. Would it have been better if we saw [them] in there rapping and singing at some point? I don't think so. I think it's perfect with just two shots of Rosa on a car.  One wide, one medium, and she dances and there you go.

Now that the social awareness of hip-hop has broadened, do you see people doing more artistic, conceptual videos instead of the norm?

I don't know, man. People are kinda stuck in their ways, so I'd be surprised to see a really big shift. But things like this show you…you can make something engaging. But you have to have Rosa Acosta. You need a girl of that talent. It's not just a hot girl shaking her ass.