Welcome. I invite to explore a pivotal moment with me. The time where I realized it wasn’t scary as it seemed. So the only way I know to tell a good story in writing is to do a top ten song countdown. Basically that is my thing. Some people use paragraphs but I choose to use playlists.
So here’s a story how I, a guy who had zero knowledge about a camera in his life ended up shooting a spoken word video for a poet friend, with my brother’s camera, a ton of confidence and zero clue what ISO actually stood for.
10. K. O – No Fear
This song captures that morning energy I showed up dressed like a media pro. Something about a utility jacket that says, “I capture the best stories and I know exactly what I am doing “ vibes. Inside? Panic. But the song says No Fear, so I rolled with it. The Lens looked intimidating, like it knew I knew nothing about it. Still. I hit record
Fun fact: “No Fear” was one of K.O’s bold solo statements after Teargas. Proof that sometimes, going solo into the unknown pays off
9. Nas – I know I can
Nas had us believing we could be anything, and that day I decided to be a Cinematographer. My poet friend believed it too, bless her heart. She needed a visual for her spoken word piece and for some reason she thought I was the guy to make it happen. I didn’t have the heart to say I barely know how to focus.
Fun Fact: “I Know I Can “ was Nas’s message to kids but really, it’s a message for every creative adult still figuring things out.
8. Twista – Hopeful
Because halfway through shooting, the light started changing. But I stayed hopeful. Twista-style hopeful. Every time my friend forgot her lines and we had to start afresh, i was worried about the battery. I just told myself, “Relax. This is art. Real art.” When I look back at those frames today, somehow they still do look professional, like someone who studied the books by Michael Freeman.
7. 2Pac – “Keep Ya Head Up”
Tupac said, “Keep ya head up,” and I took that literally.
I kept my camera pointed up for most of the shoot because I didn’t know how to properly adjust the angles. But in that chaos, something beautiful happened. Most of the shots worked. Like, really worked. It framed her perfectly, emotion raw, words trembling. That’s when it hit me that you can’t teach someone how to tell a story. Sometimes, you just see it.
6. Jay-Z – “Song Cry”
Now, I’d love to tell you the video was released and went viral.
It wasn’t. In fact, it never saw the light of day. Maybe the universe wasn’t ready for our art, or maybe it was just too avant-garde (read: I knew nothing about audio as well).
But like Jay-Z said, “I can’t see ’em comin’ down my eyes, so I gotta make the song cry.” We made the camera cry instead, in black and white, of course, because I didn’t know how to color grade.
5. Stogie T – “By Any Means”
That day, creativity was pure survival.
The poet forgot her lines. I forgot to change exposure. But somehow, we kept going by any means. It was messy, improvised, and glorious.
🎤 Fun fact: Stogie T used to perform with a live band before it was trendy, proving that real artists adapt.
4. T.I. – “Live Your Life” (feat. Rihanna)
If there’s one thing that video taught me, it’s this: live your creative life. Stop waiting for perfect gear or perfect moments. Just show up.
When Rihanna’s voice hit that “Just live your life, ayy-ay-ay,” I realized that’s exactly what we were doing, two amateurs chasing expression with nothing but passion and borrowed equipment.
💥 Fun fact: Rihanna’s famous “na-na-na-na” hook is actually sampled from a viral 2000s Euro song, “Dragostea Din Tei.” Because art borrows, it’s what you make of it that counts.
3. King Pinn – “I Salute You”
This one goes out to every creative who’s ever said, “Yeah, I can do that,” without actually knowing if they could. I salute you. Because we’re the ones who make magic happen when we least expect it. That first shoot taught me that courage and curiosity can carry you farther than skill sometimes.
2. J. Cole – “Dollar and a Dream”
Cole said it best, it all starts with a dollar and a dream. That day, it was a borrowed DSLR and a dream. The dream of creating something meaningful, something that felt like us.
I didn’t have gear, knowledge, or a lighting setup but I had hunger. And maybe that’s enough.
🎞️ Fun fact: J. Cole’s “Dollar and a Dream” tour had tickets that cost literally $1, the ultimate underdog move.
1. Kendrick Lamar – “The Heart Part 5”
Fast forward to now. I’m still figuring things out — with cameras, with storytelling, with life. But I look back and realize… that day was The Heart of it all. Kendrick talks about growth, empathy, and transformation. That’s exactly what art does. You step in unsure, and it changes you. That first “fake it till you make it” moment became the foundation for every real creative moment that followed.
🎬 Final Frame
So yeah, the video was never posted. But it didn’t need to be. It was the start of a journey — two amateurs, one camera, a black-and-white masterpiece of mistakes and magic.
And I learned something that day:
When you start doing art, something just takes over. You stop thinking about perfection and start chasing feeling. And somehow, that’s where the real story begins.
So here’s to showing up scared, to pressing record anyway, and to realizing, it was never that scary after all.
This article is part of The Human Collective. Each week we take a prompt and create a playlist and accompanying articles. This week we’re wondering: When have you realized that something wasn’t
as scary as it first seemed?” Check out the playlist: Songs That Make Life Seem Less Scary Learn more about The Human Collective here.
