Hype Williams

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Hype Williams in 2002.
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Hype Williams in 2002.

Harold "Hype" Williams (born 1970 in Queens, New York) is an American music video and film director of African-American and Honduran descent. The son of working-class parents, he grew up wanting to be a painter. Williams displayed his work by tagging local billboards, storefronts, and playgrounds; using, HYPE as his graffiti tag. "That's probably what stimulated my interests in color," he says. "I wanted to be Basquiat or Keith Haring of the streets." [1].

Hype, so named by writing partner Muse One, who taught him the ins and outs of graffit. Hype was also mentored by "Fargo" in graffiti culture. Hype began his filmaking career when he left Adelphi University in Garden City, NY, and joined with fellow graffiti writers Mike "Muse" Alexander and Ricardo "Phyz" Springer to create SOTA (State of the Art Productions). Under that unbrella SOTA created logo and album cover designs for many hip-hop artists of the time. Their big break came when they began working with Classic Concepts Video Productions. Lionel "Vid Kid" Martin & VJ Ralph McDaniels used SOTA for art direction in many of their videos and created Hype's first opportunity with the "Filmakers With Attitude" moniker (FWA), which was Hype's first video company. SOTA's development of the "Rhythm Is The Master" promotion for Polygram/Van Gibbs/Chuck Chillout Album project projected SOTA and Hype's artistic foresight ahead of the rest. The writing and drawing of the comic book, with Michael "The Talent" Laing as main artist, set SOTA ahead of the pack, as their work on the video of the same title broke ground for animation in a hip-hop video.

Williams is notable for creating a number of groundbreaking and successful music videos for hip hop and R&B artists such as Craig Mack ("Flava In Ya Ear"), LL Cool J ("Doin' It"), Nas ("If I Ruled The World (Imagine That)", "Street Dreams"), Missy Elliott ("The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)", "She's a Bitch"), Busta Rhymes ("Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See"), Kelis ("Caught Out There"), and Jay-Z ("Big Pimpin'").

In 1998, he directed his first feature film, Belly.

Awards Williams has received for his video work include the Billboard Music Video Award for Best Director of the Year (1996), the Jackson Limo Award for Best Rap Video of the Year (1996) for Busta Rhymes' "Woo Hah," the NAACP Image Award (1997), the 8th annual MVPA Award for Black Music Achievement (1997), MTV Video Music Award in the Best Rap Video (1998) category for Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It," MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video (1999) for TLC's "No Scrubs,” Winner of the BET Award for Best Director (2006) for Kanye West's “Gold Digger,”[2]

In 2006, Williams was honored by MTV with its Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, presented in honor of his achievements, as Kanye West would put it, as a "film maker." He received a standing ovation.[3]

Hype's next project will be directing an epic video for Age Of Innocence, who recently reached #1 in 47 countries.


Contents

[edit] Videography

Craig Mack in his video for "Flava in Your Ear [Remix]" (1994), directed by Hype Williams.
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Craig Mack in his video for "Flava in Your Ear [Remix]" (1994), directed by Hype Williams.

[edit] 1992

  • Strickly Roots - "Duck the Boys in Blue"
  • Zhigge - "Rakin' in the Dough"
  • Cutty Ranks - "Living Condition"

[edit] 1993

[edit] 1994

[edit] 1995

[edit] 1996

Busta Rhymes in the video for his 1997 single "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See" (1997), directed by Hype Williams.
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Busta Rhymes in the video for his 1997 single "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See" (1997), directed by Hype Williams.

[edit] 1997

[edit] 1998

[edit] 1999

[edit] 2000

Damon Dash and Jay-Z in the video for Jay-Z's 2000 single "Big Pimpin'", directed by Hype Williams.
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Damon Dash and Jay-Z in the video for Jay-Z's 2000 single "Big Pimpin'", directed by Hype Williams.

[edit] 2001

[edit] 2002

[edit] 2003

  • Ashanti - "Rain On Me" (version 1)

[edit] 2004

[edit] 2005

[edit] 2006

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ [2]
  3. ^ [3]
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