Sometimes I do a deep dive on the net and find so much 'content' I'm connected to going back nearly 25 years. Videos, music, photography and text. While Google's no longer a real search engine you can still find a decent amount of material I'm responsible for making, if you know what to search for online.
When I lived in Flatbush on any given random late night you could find me somewhere post up mostly outside shooting a random not random music video, if I weren't in the house doing the same. This is a video I shot in the house on Brooklyn and Avenue D. The original version of the song (Messin' With My Molecules) appears on Konichiwa (K)ninja, an album I put together right before we left for Tokyo in 2010. This 'remixed' version over a then very popular actual Chicago drill track, long before the New York drill phase.
Making videos as such was a basic exercise for me. I pop out in the wee hours, shoot a couple of takes, get some b-roll, then come back home edit it up in under an hour to upload to the internet first thing in the a.m. I did this shit all by myself. No crew. Sometimes no tripod. More than likely filmed with one or two of those digital Kodak handhelds leaned up against something.
I look back at these things as a reminder of all of what I've made and have been making for a long time, using whatever technology I had at the moment. I dig deep enough I can show you videos I edited in Windows media player. I was shooting and making videos regularly with absolutely no budget while I watched many of my peers break the bank releasing video after video, only to post on YouTube and a small amount of views and no real return on their investment.
All I can think about is the very large number of artists online everyday talking about how hard it is. For a person who's been creating as long as the tools were available, literally making content for a quarter century I've never complained about making shit. I'm so grateful I can, did and have. I'm not going to stop. An artist the other day responded to a post of mine and basically said some people don't make art because they truly enjoy making it. They make art because they want to be seen. And that makes sense as to why folks continually say they hate making content more often than not. And it's a general sentiment people can bond with and actually agree on. So instead of us connecting on our love for creating and sharing what we create, we bond on hate for capitalism and how capitalism forces us to make content. Also how content isn't an Art and a laundry list of other soul sucking commentary.
Personally capitalism ain't forced me to do shit. I've never stopped loving making shit and sharing it from early internet when reach was attainable to the current state of Internet ran and oppressed by algorithms.
That's all I got. Go and create something because you are inherently built to do so. Create because it is a healthy thing for a human being to do. Create before you think about sharing it and monetizing it. Create for creations sake. Create for yourself then you can think about the rest; later.
