Big Sean - Too Fake feat Chiddy Bang

What this video is

Released November 1, 2010, 'Too Fake' emerged at a pivotal moment in rap's digital transition, when mixtapes distributed via DatPiff and promoted through rap blogs like IllRoots were the primary vehicle for artist breakouts. Big Sean was a G.O.O.D. Music signee building his profile through a string of free mixtapes before his major label debut. The track samples the Hockey indie-rock song 'Too Fake' (2009, Capitol…

Why it matters

A textbook artifact of mixtape-era hip-hop visual culture: lo-fi, high-energy, and blog-native. The video documents the G.O.O.D. Music pre-major-label aesthetic, the indie-rock-sampling trend in rap, and the career origins of director Mike Carson, who would go on to direct Kendrick Lamar's Super…

The director

Born in Los Angeles and raised throughout Chicagoland, Mike Carson is a Grammy-nominated, award-winning multidisciplinary director and designer working across live performance, film, photography, and creative direction. He is the founder of The 92 Group, a…