Around three months ago, I went up to the FedEx Forum in Memphis to audition for the movie Pinkville, which was to be directed by Oliver Stone. Since then, the movie got scrapped because of the strike and a sundry of other reasons. The reason for starting out this way is to point out that I was in Memphis.

I went to the audition, made it past several cuts, and ended up in the final stage of the audition. This was where they videotape you saying your name, answering some questions, and singing a couple of bars of a song (I chose to mix up the lyrics of Oklahoma!and theGreen Acres Show Theme singing it to the tune of Green Acres; my attempt at humor).

Elation was the feeling I possessed as I walked out of the FedEx Forum. After all, several thousand people auditioned, and I was one of the remaining hundred who would have a chance of being cast in the film. Beale Street was only a block away, so I decided to treat myself to some BBQ, Blues, and Beer, all of which Memphis is famous for.

As I was walking down the famed avenue, I saw people setting up lights, speakers, and rigs right in the middle of the street. A very peculiar sight. I thought maybe they were shooting a movie; funny how I went to audition for a movie, while the real action was out here all along. It turned out to be a movie of sorts.

I asked a bystander what was going, and he said they were shooting a rap video. Before I could express any sort of remark, the bystander said, “Go on in and be in the video!”

I was a little incredulous at first, which I’m sure the rap guys would have been if I hopped into their video. But he kept urging me to do so, saying that they were encouraging people to participate. I was a little hesitant. I looked at the set-up, and there were indeed people just walking up to the area of the shoot, forming a crowd for the video. Did I do it, you ask? Well, I’ll let the link below answer that for you:

(In the crowd scenes, I’m the white guy in the middle, towards the back, and wearing a light blue long sleeve shirt.)