Toronto, ON - Every time I do a new interview with a Canadian entrepreneur, I am astonished at how driven, goal oriented and how dedicated people are to make it. I have had the opportunity to sit down with some good people and really see what inspires them, and sitting down with RT! has made me a believer.

RT! is one of Canada's most successful video directors and he is leaping forward the industry at an unstoppable pace. Having already gained national and international success, RT! is only buoyant to work harder and to take his career further.

He is responsible for giving the world a look at great Canadian talent like Point Blank, Neverending White Lights, Graph Nobel, Kardinal Offishall, Massari, Divine Brown, Choclair and Shawn Desman. In the last year alone he's worked with International talents Talib Kweli and Sean Paul.

RT! took home 4 MuchMusic Video Awards including Director of the Year, and was nominated for 12 awards in total at this year's MMVA's. He has also been nominated and won at the 2006 Urban World Film Festival in New York for the past couple of years, and has been a nominee at the MMVA's since his first video.

RT! has already accomplished a variety of goals as a video director, but his success story has just only begun. We welcome you to watch the video as RT! speaks to HipHopCanada.com about his career, the Canadian industry as well as the music videos he has been behind.

HHC: How did you first get into video directing, what was the process that got you into it?
I have always been interested in story telling and drawing and so I was always big into arts. What I was aiming to do with my life as I was growing up was to do animation. I love cartoons so I went to Sheridan for a year and wasted my whole year there. Gave up drawing, didn't feel like drawing anymore, so I took time off and decided to re-assess myself. During that time I realized that I kind of wanted to do something in film because I like movies. If you think about it, there is a correlation between animation, cartoons, storytelling and directing. In cartoons the animator is creating a world and drawing it, and in directing you're kind of doing the same thing, but with real people. Then I went in to Ryerson and after I got there I melded the two loves together.

HHC: You have worked extensively in television serving as an Assistant Producer of the MuchMoreMusic Countdown at CHUM for two years. How did you score that?
When I got out of Ryerson I started working at HMV. I had a friend who was a floor director at Much and I was like, "Dude, I want to come in and try to get in the building." He said to just go and intern with him, help around and when they see me enough, they'll probably just hire me eventually. That's what I did and that's what ended up happening. I would work at HMV and go there after work, and eventually they took me on as the floor director on the famous Electric Circus. Then that was it. From there I moved up and eventually became the assistant producer at the Much More Music Countdown.

HHC: Great. How was the experience?
Everyone who wants to be in the entertainment wants to go through that building, so it was great. Once you get in there they let you experiment and do whatever. If you want to try editing, then go ahead. Also, because I was the assistant producer, I had to watch a lot of videos and I really enjoyed that. I did a lot of research and I'd sit there hours after work and watch videos and analyze them. How things were shot, colors used etc. which really helped me in my development.

HHC: Were you also directing videos at the time?
Yes I was. I knew I didn't just want to be assistant producer at Much, so I was doing my thing on the side as well. I wanted to be creative.

HHC: What was the first video you directed?
First video I directed was for my man G Stokes called "Rock the Block".

HHC: What was the concept for the video?
It was a party track, but I didn't really want to do a club video. I did this really different idea. It's very surreal life type. It's a group of guys and a group of girls fighting over a parking space. They get into a battle of sports. Makes no sense, but it was cool. You'd have to see it. I got my first MuchMusic nomination with that.

HHC: Do you look back at videos? Compare maybe the way you used to work before?
You know what? I just did that the other day. I looked at some of the old stuff. I think they're all pretty good. There are ones that are of course not so great (Laughing).

HHC: How have your concepts changed your techniques?
I definitely changed some of the techniques and lighting styles that I used, but there's a thread that it's in some of my work.

HHC: Can you tell if you were to watch the videos? Is there anything in particular about your videos that people can identify as yours?
In my videos I try to create a world around the artist, and then put him/her right in the middle. This is a world you won't see anywhere else, that is tailored to the artist and to that particular song. It can be anything from everyone wearing the color red, to creating a world of angels and devils, etc. The video also has to feel like the song. It absolutely has to.

HHC: You also worked as Segment Producer on SunTV's multi-ethnic profile series Echo for its entire run. Tell me more about it. What were some of the highlights of the show?
Echo is a great show that airs on SunTV and the main producer of it worked at Much for a little bit of time. She called me up and asked me if I wanted to do it, and that was it. At that point, I was also doing my videos on the side, and it was getting to a point where I was too busy, so I decided to leave MuchMusic and take the new opportunity. The show profiled ethnic Canadians, various races and not just entertainers. It was cool just following different people and hearing their stories. It was different.

HHC: What is your goal as a director? Where do you see yourself in the next few years, or better yet, what is success to you?
Success to me is on two levels. As a director, if I am working on an individual project with somebody, success to me is that this world that I create fits their song, feels like their song and it is representative of them as an artist. My goals in life are to tell stories, become a filmmaker, holding my craft as a filmmaker and hopefully doing feature films and stuff.

HHC: Anything you regret doing in the past? That has maybe slowed you down in reaching your ultimate goal?
I wouldn't say that I regret anything. I am sure there's stuff I do that slows me down. I'm not always out there, a schmooze type dude. I'm a much more low key type of guy who likes to chill with his friends, so I am sure that gets in the way. You can't do too much of that: care too much of what people say and care too much about where you have to be. Then you find yourself back. If one day you feel a little lazy, feel a little lazy; just make sure you pick it up the next day.

HHC: Who are some of your biggest influences? Work that you admire?
In terms of other filmmakers, you have: Little X, Hype Williams, Mark Romanek (king of videos for me), Francis Lawrence, Spike Jones. Then you have Spike Lee, John Woo, Tarantino, Fellini, and Hitchcock. These are people that made things that impacted me and made me want to do better. In terms of specific videos, half of Mark Romanek's stuff; the first Lenny Kravitz video he did is a classic video. I like Jay Z - "99 Problems", Hype Williams directed Busta Rhymes - "Put your hands where my eyes can see". Then Little X came with that whole piece-editing thing where the images start piecing away. He did that with "Can't Deny it" by Nate Dogg and Fabolous. I also like a lot of foreign films. I like contemporary films too, but I like a lot of foreign films. Hero, Seven Samurais, Citizen Kane, Do the right thing are classic movies. Good action flicks are good too. I like everything. There's stuff coming out now that is beautiful for what it is.

HHC: What is the latest movie you watched in theatre?
Maybe the latest thing I seen was the Superman flick. I was just in Italy, so I haven't had a chance to go to the movies lately, but I will be checking a bunch of stuff out at the Film Festival. I'm watching like 10 films next week.

HHC: Music wise? What do you listen to?
Nowadays I love my old soul: Sam Cook, Marvin Gaye. I like a lot of rock: The Killers, Beck, U2, Abba; atmospheric shit. Hip-hop wise in Toronto I like: King Reign, Saukrates, Mayhem, Cadence Weapon, Kardi and The Blackjays, Jay Diggz. I like people who do different things or come out truthfully like JB or Jelleestone.

HHC: What is your take on hip-hop in Canada; music, production, film?
I think that Canada has got a great hip-hop scene/music scene in general. It's unfortunate that they don't get recognized well enough here. We have the creativity. We just have a hard time with the business side. I think that's a major problem because a lot of people here don't know how to handle their business properly and that gets in the way of us not being represented properly. In addition to that we have a bad infrastructure. We have no media here. There is no media that grabs hold of upcoming stars. Yes there is a little bit of TV, but it's not on the level that is in the States. New music that comes out in the States is on 20 different channels, 20 different magazine covers, and they're playing across the country on the radio. We've got nothing like that… MuchMusic, MTV (they don't play any videos) and that's about it. We have no magazines PERIOD. Someone comes out in the States; they're on Rolling Stone, Vibe, The Source, Entertainment Weekly, Scratch, and Complex etc. If I was walking by a magazine stand and I didn't know someone's album was dropping this day, I would know because I would see them on 20 different magazine covers and I would be able to know about them and read about them. Here an album drops, no one knows. And you know nothing about the artist, so you don't even know whether to buy their stuff or not.

HHC: Here most magazines would probably put an American artist on the cover dropping that day because it would probably sell more.
Of course they would! I think that's a major problem. And the radio is like, you have one station in your city and there are no other affiliates. It's great that they play it, but it's not like they're playing it in Winnipeg or Vancouver.

HHC: Unless you go physically there and try to access the different cities yourself…
Yes of course. So with that said, we're lacking in the business aspect of things. However, it doesn't mean that you can't succeed. It just means that you have to figure it out. Examine the people who have succeeded and try to make it happen. If you're talking about success in the past that I was a part of, then you're talking about someone like Massari. Those guys were successful in doing something that has never been done in Canada before and blowing it up. Yes, they had money, but they didn't just go and buy off everyone. Yes, they spent a lot of money on their videos, but they didn't just stop there. They put just as much money into the business aspect of it: putting packages together, getting the correct team together. They went and got a company to handle their marketing and made sure that these people were all flying to different places and presenting their projects. It was all these things that made them a success. They really came at it like a business. This can't be like a basement production.

HHC: And even if it's not on that level, you know flying people out and stuff; it can be the same technique.
Exactly. Studying the success stories before you is the best advice I can give to anyone in this industry.

HHC: Do you think we have progressed in the industry or not, in terms of the hip-hop artists? Do you think hip-hop artists coming out in the previous years were being recognized all across the country, and now we're lacking in that? Or we are still on the same level?
I think it's a different level. Back then record companies were signing everyone. Everyone in The Circle got a record deal. At the same time it's like, "was that the golden era for Canadian hip-hop?" Yes they got signed and there was a little money spent, but they fell off really quickly. Now you're looking at a time period where the net is more prevalent in helping artists. A lot of artists are also realizing that a lot of labels are not too sure if they know how to deal with hip-hop artists too good. I mean look at Capital Prophets again, not to toot their horn too much. They went at it independent and went past what any record label has done for any Canadian urban artist. Is a record label that important nowadays? Maybe not if you have your business together and you're handling it properly. It's a different time. There's a lot more artists getting that first showing. Every day I'm hearing about new hip-hop artists from Canada. Before it was like 5 guys and now everyone is trying to do their thing. It's definitely a different time.

HHC: What do you think of VideoFact? Do you think it helps artists to work harder and get a grant for their video, or do you think it makes them lazier in the sense that they don't have to work as hard to put a video out because they can just depend on the grant?
I personally think that VideoFact is the greatest thing. I think we are probably the only country in the world to give grants to artists and say: "Here… make a free music video."

HHC: How is $20,000 for a music video?
It's not very much money. VideoFact is not there to fund your whole video. It funds half your video. It's reasonable for half of a simple music video. You should be operating with about 40 - 50 G's. That will give you a comfortable video… maybe. I think it's a beautiful thing. My career was built off of VideoFact. As Little X and any other director coming out of Canada will tell you, you use Videofact to get on your feet and try new stuff. I think it's very important and needed. To use an analogy, it's like food stamps. Are food stamps good or are they bad? They're good if they feed a family and stop a baby from dying. It's a bad thing when 4 generations of a family have been living off of food stamps. That's not because of the food stamps. That's because of lazy ass motherfuckers. Is VideoFact bad because it gives you money? If you can take that money and put it into something that you can use, then it's wicked. But if you got ten videofacts and no album, they're not the problem. The problem is you. You should be hustling and trying not to use VideoFact.

HHC: Do you think it is okay for artists to use money that VideoFact may give them to put it into the business aspect of their music?
It would be impossible to do that. The way VideoFact works is that you have to have a video to get it. You have to do the video and then they pay you back.

HHC: So you have to have 20 G's up front?
Well production companies will front that money. Production companies like mine will front that money for you and then they will get it back. But you should have 20 G's as well to match it, so that you have a $40,000 video. But there is no money being given so you can't take it and put it into something else.

HHC: What in your opinion would make a bad video?
In general what I think makes a bad video; it's when it doesn't feel like the song. It has to feel like the song in some respect. If you turn off the song and you start watching the visuals and you can't feel what the song playing underneath is, then it might be a problem. If you're talking about in Canada, a bad video comes out when you're trying to do more than you can actually do. That's a problem in Canada because a lot of artists will look at American videos and say "oh wow I want this and this and this," without realizing that the videos they are watching are 20 times the budget. No word of a lie… half a million dollars to 200-300 thousand dollars. The result is that the video comes off looking tacky. You want to do a club scene and they get all their friends together and go in the basement of their house to shoot it, it's not looking right. You do what you can do on your budget; you don't try to show your whole life on the video.

HHC: What's the lowest budget that you've ever worked with?
The very first video I did was no budget: about $500.00, shot on a video camera. No body saw that one. You can do cool stuff. Low budget doesn't necessarily mean bad video. The technology is there. People can edit now at home, and you can get a HD camera for pretty cheap. You can shoot, and if you shoot it the right way, it's going to look gritty. Gritty is hot. My man Aaron A is doing that kind of stuff. His videos are dope because they represent the people that are in them. They represent the song and the stuff that is there. It doesn't mean bad; you just have to be smart about it. Using that camera and that kind of stuff, don't try to make it look like it's a Hype Williams video, because it's not going to look like it. Then people will start calling you out.

HHC: Oh okay. That's neat. You've have been nominated for the past 3 years at the MMVA's and this year you were nominated for 12 Much Music Video Awards, taking home 4 of them. How did you feel and what was the most exciting category?
It was great. Shit when you win it's crazy. It's a beautiful thing. It's like winning the lottery. You probably saw me drunk on stage, but it was great. The most exciting nomination for me was Director of the Year.

HHC: Did you take that home?
Yes, yes I did.

HHC: Very good. Were you drunk at that point?
(Laughing) No, I was sober for that one. I made sure I didn't drink for that one. After I got that trophy that was it for me. But man, Director of the Year, that's the best win right there.

HHC: What were some other Directors that were nominated?
There's a director named Micah who had an outstanding video. There's also Sean Michael Turell, who also had an outstanding video.

HHC: You have worked with great Canadian talent like Point Blank, Neverending White Lights, Jelleestone Kardinal Offishall, Massari, Divine Brown, Choclair, Shawn Desman, as well as artists like Talib Kweli and Sean Paul. You also recently co-directed Xzibit's new video with Little X. What has been the most memorable shoot for you?
That's a crazy question. I don't know. All of the video shoots are pretty memorable. The vibe on the set of "Everyday Rudeboy" was ill. Mad people, everyone was excited and dressed different. The Xzibit shoot was hot too. I got like one hour of sleep the night before so I was wired. It was a cool shoot and Xzibit was mad cool. Neverending White Lights was cool too.

HHC: What are some difficult things that you've had to deal with on set? Like people not showing up on time and things along those lines?
People not showing up on time. You have to understand that this is a business and even though it looks like fun, it's not! On the shoot day is serious. If s dude has got to be there at 5 in the morning, the dude has got to be there at 5 in the morning. I'm not fucking around. That's a big thing. A lot of people complain and say that there is a lot of sitting around. Yes, you may not be used all the time but when we need you, you have to be ready. Time is money on set. Every hour on the set costs me $300 x 10 crewmembers = $3000.00 an hour. I have to pay these guys by the hour. If you're at McDonalds when I need you on set, you're screwed. That's how important it is.

HHC: There are a lot of people out there who are aspiring directors or film crew types. Do you have any advice for them on how to get into the industry?
Network, network, network. There's always something happening. There are always some low budget videos being shot. That's the best stuff. Go to something like that, find out whom the producer is and get in touch with him. Say you want to help and you don't care what you do, and DON'T CARE WHAT YOU DO. When you're there you meet people and you can get on a next set. You see me on the street say what's up. I'm always walking around Toronto. Come say what's up. If you want to help out, let me know. I can't do everyone's video, but I'm an approachable dude.

HHC: What are some of your projects for the rest of 2006 and 2007? Anything you can give us scoop on?
I can't really reveal that. I am booked. I am a busy guy. I have 7 things to shoot before the end of October.

Editor's note: For more information on RT! Please visit http://www.235films.com or check out his MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/rtzzle.