Jay-Z has claimed Hype Williams once asked for a whopping $1.8 million to direct one of his music videos.
The “99 Problems” rapper teamed up with the director on the music promo for his 1997 song “(Always Be My) Sunshine,” which featured collaborator Foxy Brown. However, he wasn’t willing to fork out the outrageous “$750,000 to $1 million dollars” the filmmaker demanded, with his budget sitting at “around $20,000.”
“It was this whole circus. I think he had elephants. I think he may have given the idea to Busta [Rhymes]. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but I remember being blown away by it,” Jay recalled in a feature for Complex in honor of Williams.
“I was like, ‘Hype, come on, bro.’ Like I got mad at him. Like are you trying to play me? You think I’m dumb?” he continued.
Williams ended up accepting a lower amount, but the video was a “cheap version,” which Jay regrets.
“I learned a valuable lesson from that. Either I’m going to trust Hype’s vision or I’m going to go with another idea. Don’t condense ideas. Either shoot the brilliant idea or move to another idea. Don’t take a brilliant idea and make it less and then expect brilliant results. That’s not how life works.
“We broke down the idea and it looks like a cheap version of what we were trying to shoot. So we did it to ourselves. But then you realize in hindsight that the money, it’s just money. But the visuals are priceless. The Missy [Elliott] video is priceless. The Busta video is priceless,” Jay concluded.
