Billboard Exclusive: DaBaby Breaks Down His "Trickin" Music Video | Billboard
DaBaby breaks down his new music video for his song "Trickin'" exclusively for Billboard.
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MusicTranscript
00:00 ♪ Yeah ♪
00:02 - What's up Billboard, it's DaBaby.
00:06 Right now, this is an exclusive behind the scenes look
00:09 into my music video for "Trickin'",
00:11 directed by DaBaby.
00:13 ♪ Trickin', all these niggas trickin' ♪
00:17 ♪ Trickin', trickin' real good ♪
00:21 - Um, what does trickin' mean?
00:22 I actually learned this when I learned about
00:25 I was shooting this video from my friend Crispy over here.
00:29 Crispy, come here.
00:30 He's trickin' me.
00:32 - Sophie, I think you would be the best to answer this.
00:36 Oh, Gianni.
00:37 - What do I know?
00:38 - How did you explain what trickin' means to us earlier?
00:40 - Uh.
00:40 - So you really gotta be with the older guy, right?
00:44 And you trickin' on him, but you have a young guy at home.
00:48 - And does the young guy know about the old guy?
00:49 - Yes, he eats too.
00:51 (laughing)
00:52 - Okay, so the overall concept of this song, "Trickin'",
00:55 is just based upon giving the females the knowledge needed
00:59 to get whatever they need to get out of a man
01:01 who feels like he can buy his way to your heart.
01:03 - Trickin', you're basically taking care of a girl's,
01:06 not only her needs, but her wants also.
01:09 She gets princess treatment all of the time.
01:11 That's what a trick is.
01:13 - It's a women empowerment song.
01:14 - Can I trick on somebody?
01:16 - Shout out to my guy, Logan, the director of photography.
01:19 Let's start off getting her covers.
01:22 So if it's the wide shot, the establishing shot,
01:24 with everybody coming in, let's get that,
01:25 and then let's just shoot out of order.
01:28 Logan, I've been working with him since about 2017,
01:30 when I was a local artist, so it's just a beautiful thing
01:33 to just see people grow on their own journey.
01:36 We have the restaurant scene coming up.
01:39 And I wanted to just add a little extra spice to it.
01:41 We're spray painting the food gold.
01:43 You know, the guy, he's gonna wanna date
01:44 a nice, beautiful young lady.
01:46 Hey, Hal!
01:47 I don't think he sees or hears us, but, you know,
01:51 he's gonna be on point when the camera gets to rolling, man.
01:54 He's not gonna get what he wants at the end of the day,
01:56 you know what I'm saying?
01:56 She's gonna get what she wants.
01:57 A $25,000 steak, $17,000 cheeseburger,
02:01 $8,500 french fries.
02:04 You wanna bite?
02:05 Bon appetit.
02:05 Hi, Billboard, my name is April Rivera.
02:07 I own Abe Castings.
02:09 I've been working with DaBaby
02:10 in all of his music videos since 2016.
02:14 This is Hal, and today he's gonna be one of our leads.
02:18 DaBaby's gonna be teaching these ladies
02:19 how to get the most money out of these men.
02:23 Ah-ha!
02:24 And I can do that.
02:26 We're gonna establish the scene, what's going on.
02:29 We'll have the waitress come in, just push past him,
02:32 and we'll land right here where we're focusing at
02:35 with our star, Hal.
02:36 Yeah, don't leave me hanging, baby, there we go.
02:39 All right, let's do it.
02:40 Camera speed, and action.
02:42 [upbeat music]
02:45 Bye, bye.
02:47 Let's reset, yeah.
02:48 When she introduces these super high-end items,
02:50 I wanna do it like product shots, almost.
02:52 I don't wanna leave room for the text,
02:55 for the graphics that fly in, it says what it is,
02:57 and then it just runs into that.
02:59 [imitates drum roll]
03:00 You know what I'm saying?
03:01 Shout out to my creative director, it's Rel Fly, Molo.
03:04 So I go by the name of Rel Fly,
03:06 I'm a creative director on this project.
03:07 DaBaby as a director, he knows what he wants.
03:10 Let's try covering it from over her shoulder.
03:11 I like the mug, that's what it needs.
03:13 My secret weapon when it comes to creative direction,
03:15 all things Molo are all things beautiful.
03:17 Our creative direction is more just schoolgirl,
03:21 we're gonna break a trick, get money.
03:23 It's gonna be a crazy video.
03:24 DaBaby is the most creative person I've ever worked with.
03:27 We're like a tag team.
03:28 He feeds off of me, I feed off of him,
03:30 and we just make magic.
03:32 I have the best assistant in the world, Stephanie,
03:34 who also did art design.
03:36 Welcome to Billion Dollar Baby University.
03:38 This book is the Bible of how to trick.
03:42 We made these custom BDB University mugs last night.
03:47 We got some really, really nice signs.
03:49 We decked out the desk to make it look like a classroom.
03:52 So Dr. Kirk comes from DaBaby's real name,
03:54 it's Jonathan Kirk, so here we have Dr. Kirk.
03:56 Give a round of applause for Stephanie.
03:58 Let's get a round of applause in here.
04:00 Let's check on the ladies.
04:04 I wanna say hey to Billboard.
04:06 We're super excited, we're all gonna be playing
04:08 beautiful schoolgirls.
04:09 We have these cute schoolgirl outfits
04:11 with these blue skorts.
04:13 We're gonna be learning how to properly trick
04:15 a sugar daddy.
04:16 Hi, right now I'm just getting really pretty.
04:19 Well, I'm already pretty, but I'm getting prettier.
04:21 Can you just tell me what is that?
04:22 This wig is for the baby.
04:24 - What's the size you're talking about?
04:26 - I guess the 70s pimp look.
04:28 - When my character comes all the way together,
04:29 when this beautiful 18 inch wig falls on my head
04:33 and my hat goes on over top of it, you know,
04:36 Gucci will make sense.
04:37 I'm playing a pimp, you know what I'm saying?
04:39 A reformed pimp.
04:40 - All right, so baby, next scene,
04:42 this the master shot in the classroom.
04:43 He's coming in there to teach, swag, you know,
04:46 you know what I'm saying, be baby, basically.
04:48 - Get my wig, it's up.
04:50 With the storytelling concept of the video,
04:51 I be, you know, the instructor of a Trichonomics 101 class.
04:56 So what I did was turn the song into a book.
04:59 Dr. Seuss, these are not for sale.
05:01 Do not sue us, Dr. Seuss.
05:04 It's a story that I'm reading out loud.
05:06 I'm giving a lecture on the book that I wrote called Trigger.
05:09 You'll see a lot of colorful set design,
05:11 playful energy throughout the song and just fun storytelling.
05:14 Bring her in.
05:15 Bring her in.
05:17 Bring her in.
05:21 Hold on, let me stand up like this.
05:23 Bring her in.
05:25 I need a towel or something.
05:28 - My name is Quandra, but everybody calls me Q.
05:34 I'm the wig master.
05:35 I actually styled it and I cut it and I curled it.
05:38 - Yes, Lord, get the stats, you know what I'm saying?
05:41 Trichonomics 101.
05:43 It's all in the stats, baby.
05:44 Yeah.
05:46 One thing about me and a lot of the people, you know,
05:49 that I got around me, that I gravitate
05:51 towards like we wear several hats, man,
05:53 and everybody's down for the cause.
05:55 Action.
05:56 Where my boy Joe at?
05:57 - It's Joe the man here.
05:58 I'm DaBaby's personal photographer.
06:00 So Baby asked me to play the guitar in the video.
06:03 So you know what?
06:04 I said, I'm not only gonna play the guitar,
06:06 I'm gonna rock out on the guitar.
06:07 I'm gonna trick the guitar, baby.
06:09 - Keep it going, keep it going.
06:10 From the top, let's do this take all the way live,
06:12 whole time.
06:13 - She wanna get hit in the chest.
06:14 - You see this shot?
06:15 - She just went and got away with the last shot right here.
06:16 - Once I have an idea, once I'm locked in on it,
06:18 I'm super big on just, you know,
06:20 going as far as I can to get the vision across
06:23 and put it in front of viewers.
06:24 I'm all about making people smile,
06:25 making people move, making people dance.
06:27 So I like to create a world
06:28 and just live life in that world to the fullest.
06:31 Shout out to everybody involved
06:33 with making this masterpiece that we have.
06:36 This music video and this beautiful song called "Trickin".
06:39 - T-Rock!
06:39 - Trickin.
06:40 - Yes!
06:41 - Woo!
06:42 - They trickin' real good.