Drake’s Viral Videos Are All Part Of God’s Plan, This Company Proves

"I don’t think there’s a science to it," Director X says matter of factly. The celebrated music video and film director has been asked an eas nevertheless subtly perplexing question — is there a science to building a viral video? Response The solution is deflating, yet expected. Human beings crave formulas, rules, and blueprints, although if art were so conveniently condensed into a box, then it’d cease to be art.


"I mean, you could never tell what’s gonna quite catch," he continues. "Things are a little bit different whenever you’re creating a music video with Drake. He’s Drake. You’re already beginning with a record. You’re beginning with the correct music. Then Drake really works hard to prepare concepts that are going to get attention."


Director X understands this better than anybody. He arguably gave Drake his first genuinely viral music video with the bar mitzvah to end all bar mitzvahs in 2012’s “HYFR (Hell Ya Fucking Right)” and followed it up three years later with the eternally meme-able “Hotline Bling.”


Right now his intern-turned-protégé Karena Evans has taken the reins. She met the legendary director right after producer Boi-1da, a mutual friend, shared his personalized contact information. Evans, 22, reached out and, in her words, instructed him, "'Listen, this is who I am. You don’t know me, although I want to work for you and I just hope to display to you what I can do.'"


Right now, Evans is accountable for five of the largest music videos of 2018: Drake's "God’s Plan," "Nice For What," "I’m Upset," and "In My Feelings," and SZA’s "Garden mention It Like Dat)" starring Donald Glover. Each has predictably gone viral, garnered millions of views, and positioned the young director as one of the most in-demand filmmakers.

Drake really works hard to prepare concepts that are going to get attention.

Dynamic, colorful, and kinetic, Evans’s videos have a warmness and directness that aren't usually involving big-budget, major label-backed music videos. Take her latest visual for “In My Feelings.” Over the course of eight minutes, it manages to show off Drake’s endearing side by letting him channel his acting roots, introduces the eternal grace and maternity of Phylicia Rashad to a new generation, pays homage to New Orleans culture, and showcases the overwhelming joy of the "In My Feelings" challenge. And nevertheless, it never feels overstuffed.


Her mentor Director X doesn't believe in a formula for viral success. Neither does Evans. Exceptional videos, she says, have to express two essential elements.


"Let’s capture culture. Let’s capture authenticity," she explains. "For something like ‘God’s Plan,’ it seemed like, let’s capture real people and tell a story about giving back and that came from Drake’s heart. So I think the initial thing is like, you gotta really believe and you also gotta mean it for it to translate through that screen."


Capturing culture isn't only a brilliant description of "God's Plan." It's also the ethos of Popp Rok, the Toronto production organization built by Director X, executive producer Taj Critchlow, and production head Adam Palmer to give young and diverse directors like Evans and LeSean Harris a chance.


“We’re probably the only black executive producers at a production firm, let alone the fucking country,” Critchlow says emphatically.


Popp Rok was formed almost two years back. The target, Critchlow explains, was to make something "from Toronto that symbolizes us, the city we love and where we're from, nevertheless we also wanted to prepare construct a business that competes on an international level."


That goal bleeds by way of the conversation of every person working at Popp Rok. Palmer grew up in the city and remembers a time before Drake and The Weeknd helped shine a light on a place that was artistically failed to notice in terms of hip-hop and R&B.


"We been telling you guys for years how dope this thing is and why multi-cultured and able and just a melting weed of music and people and visuals and just creative [this city is],” Palmer shares. “And we knew it for a minute, and it’s just nice to be a piece of something where folks are sort of really recognizing our work, yet recognizing that we’re a Toronto company.”

Let’s capture culture. Let’s capture authenticity.

Defiant, confident, and direct, the males are candid about the hurdles they faced getting Popp Rok to where it is currently. “They’re not used to seeing guys like us in the room," Critchlow continues. "A lot of times, because we come from a music-video background, they kinda look at us like, ‘You sure you could do this commercial?’”


Although, the challenges don't habitually come from the firm side. Evans's recent visuals have often dropped throughout some of the most turbulent portions of her clientele careers. Evans helped turn SZA’s “Garden mention It Like Dat)” into a tropical oasis, which was a needed reprieve while in a summer where the TDE singer was maneuvering through multiple efficiency and personal issues. Evans also released her Degrassi-inspired video for Drake’s “I’m Upset” while the Toronto rapper was embroiled in his beef with Pusha T. How do those external factors impact her visuals?


“I think I could be sort of naive and ignorant to not visualize those order kind of things," she says. "I do think that it’s my job as a storyteller to still communicate the story without consideration of these other factors. I guess for me personally, Popp Rok is sort of the enabler for my creative expression, so it’s just been a blessing that those significant things have worked in terms of timing of once I’m working those artists."


The success of Popp Rok is indebted to the significance of history and lineage. The legendary music video director Hype Williams gave Director X an internship over 20 years prior, and right now the same kid who worked on Williams's film Belly is directing films of his own. Even on the set of his latest feature film, Superfly, X and the team at Popp Rok are still looking to give young and diverse talent a chance. It's the reason a new director like LeSean Harris can leverage directing videos for OVO Sound's dvsn into a larger gig working on a Miguel music video for Superfly.


"We wanted to prepare ensure that we had this platform to give possibilities for the next X and the Karenas right now of the world and the LeSean Harrises and the Aaron As," Critchlow explains. "We wanted to prepare ensure that the trials and tribulations that we went through, as far as leaving Toronto to go to New York City and abroad to really make a name for ourselves, to finally be accepted back residence. We wanted to prepare ensure that these kids and these storytellers, these directors... They have a portal that they can build from."


That portal is only getting bigger, but it remains in the city where it all started.