YoungWill

Thursday, February 20, 2020

It’s a bitter cold Chicago day in February and Will is busy as usual. He’s a full time student and the fastest growing videographers in the city. He’s got over a million views in uploaded YouTube content of artist from Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. He now has 18k followers and counting on Instagram. Aside from these numbers, he’s respected by the people in his circle and faces across the city.

I meet him off of Harrison and we get into an Uber so I can interview him while he’s on his way to shoot another music video. Even though it’s barely 20 degrees, he averages at least one shoot everyday now. He’s wearing an all black Nike Tech fit and his usual Champion backpack where he keeps his camera gear.

After both car doors slam shut the Uber driver turns off his blinkers and merges onto the highway. Then we start the interview.

“I’m from Dolton or Riverdale. I’ve lived everywhere across the city. Not out West or none of that though. My moms grew up in the Golden Gates which is right next to The Gardens . Thats a project in Chicago. And my dad is from the Chatham area on 87th, so my whole family is from the South side of Chicago.”

han : What is the stigma around the South Side of Chicago?

“If I go anywhere else outside Chicago, people think it’s so bad and that everybody is against each other. I can’t speak for anyone else, but my crew and the people I’m around, we show a lot of love and hold each other up. It’s a lot more togetherness in Chicago than people think. We got a lot of culture here too, we start a majority of the trends and sayings.”

“Also being from out South we’ll always call the West Side dirty and say they don’t know how to dress. And I guess to a certain extent that is true, but also not. I hadn’t even really been out West until I was like 17 but this past year, 2019, out of the whole city, out West has shown me the most love to be honest. Out West is really on their grind their with music. They have a lot of popping artist like DCG who are some young kids who are like 16-17 going crazy, you got SBG Keemo, Pronto Spazzout, there are just a lot of big faces that have helped me get where I’m at too.”

han : Okay, tell me about the first time you picked up a camera.

“The first time I picked up a camera to shoot a video, it wasn’t even a camera, it was an iPhone. And it started with me shooting videos while we were in the basement of my homie DJ Ron Ron’s house. Someone started rapping and I just picked up my phone and started recording. I didn’t really know what I was doing, I just did it.  I grew a passion for it and kept going. I was always like that as a kid too and even now. If I have a passion for something I’m focused and I work at it.”

han : When was your first time charging for a shoot?

“ The first time I charged for a shoot I was when I was like 15, but it wasn’t no real money. A lot of people don’t realize your’re not going to get anywhere starting off if you charge everybody. One of the realest pieces of advice I can give you is that you gotta work for free to get rich. “

han : Did you plan on pursuing this at 15? & What advice would you give to your younger-self?

” Not at all, to your first question. I was like the funny fat kid school. I also played sports and had dreams of going to the NBA. But the school I was at kind of broke my passion for basketball. I used to be really good at drawing too. There’s a lot of artistic people on my pops side of the family and even though I don’t draw anymore I feel like a lot of that creativity funneled into making videos. “

“But advice that I would give to my younger-self would be to do it the exact same way really, I don’t regret anything in life.”

han : How did your parents feel about you shooting music videos?

“My pops didn’t believe in me at all with this video stuff. He was a big party promoter in the city when he was younger and he lost a lot of people. It made him stray away from that scene. We even lost a cousin because of the people he was hanging around in the music industry. I understood where he was coming from with that. But now he’s one of my biggest fans.” Will explained smiling really wide. “He’s big with the youth and my favorite story is the one he told me where when he told his technology class that YoungWill was his son the whole class went crazy. I could tell that made him really happy like “dang my son is really doing this stuff out here.”

“With my mom she’s like a free spirit. I can talk to her about anything and not feel judged and in the beginning she kind of believed in me but it was just like a“yea boy, gone head” you feel me?“ But now everyone sees the bigger picture. They see what’s going on.”

“There have been people in my neighborhood that I knew were going to blowup and I’d point them out to my mom and then they’d make it. She would say “dang you really have an eye for this.” I’ve always known good music. Sometimes people focus on what they did instead of what’s next but I’m always worried about tomorrow.”

“That’s another thing thats in cards for me in the future. I really want to use my eye for discovering talent and start to A&R artist which basically means discovering talent. I’m already managing a few people and eventually I want to do a partnership with a label.”

“But now everyone sees the bigger picture. They see what’s going on.”

-YoungWill

han : Since I’ve met you freshman year I noticed a big change in energies from you, you carry a lot more assuredness about yourself. Where do you think that comes from?

“It comes from the people around me. Freshman year I was going through a lot and this year I’m going through a lot too, but I taught myself to look at things in a different way and not lose sight of the big picture. I’m seeing the end goal now and it makes me move with more confidence. I have older people from by my house telling me they look up to me. The things that I’m doing are inspiring people to turn their life around.“

“I would say another reason is because I lost a cousin this year, Domo. And he was a close friend that I wanted to see make it out of the hood when I got rich because that’s all he ever really knew. On top of that, he got killed by his best friend and that really messed up my mental. That gives me the motivation to keep going and keep so I don’t have to worry about losing anybody else so I can get everyone else in a better position. Even with the little clout that I have now I can do stuff like put someone on my page who cuts hair, then boom that can give them more clientele.

han : What is your creative process when you’re shooting a video?

“ I do a lot of run and gun shoots which is what I’m known for. Run and gun means you get to the spot, you pull out the camera, and you go. But it depends on who I’m working with and what they want done. If I’m making a video with a whole bunch of people in the crib you’ll know its a YoungWill video because of the way it looks. I’m going to make the crib I’m shooting at look like something else and make every word come to life. I’m very detail oriented. “

han : What was your most memorable shoot ?

He pauses for a second to think. “I don’t know, I do a lot of shoots.”

I can vouch for that statement. Most days if I saw Will in the afternoon it would be a glimpse of him getting into an Uber on his way to a shoot.”

He continues: “One that opened my eyeswas when I went to Atlanta to shoot with Calboy. We come from the same area and I’ve watched rise from the bottom up with his rapping and music.  I always knew he was going to blow up. And what he came from…” Will shook his head.

“He’s already on now and has a million followers so when he said to me “dang, boy you’re going crazy, I remember when you were just lil Will. You’re really doing your shit now.” That was a major eye opening moment for me that and showed me how far this is going to take me.”

han : You keep talking about seeing “the bigger picture.” What does the bigger picture mean to you? 

Will rubs hands together like he’s excited. “Well, you can’t give too much of the sauce away, but eventually I want to move out of Chicago. And Chicago is always going to be home but the bigger picture for me is being able to buy my mom a crib all the way off and putting some of my family who are still in The Garden in a better living situation. I want to build the people around me and make sure they’re doing something productive too that isn’t involved in the streets or anything like that, whether thats barbers, construction workers, or having their own business. “

han : Do you remember that moment in 2018, the summer before freshman year, when we were all sitting in the lounge and eight out of twelve people in the room agreed that they thought you were going to be the first one to drop out? What was that like and how do you deal with people who underestimate you?

“I just look at it as motivation, honestly. Because when I accomplish what I say I’m going to accomplish, I’m going to do it in the most player way possible AND you’re going to know that I did that.” Will responded smirking.

“For example, I remember when I was shooting a video at the basketball court by the crib and people would look at me and laugh. Now, if I shoot a video at the basketball court the whole court is going to stop playing to watch me shoot the video.”

han : What are your thoughts about school now?

“My step mom thought I was going to flunk out of college my first year which is crazy because I’ve always been a pretty good student. I graduated a year early in high school so I know I’m doing something right. I just find it funny people don’t think I’m going to do certain things.”

“Also I’m not the biggest fan of school right now, but one thing I know is that I’m going to finish school for my pops because he’s the one who got me into school and really wants for me to better myself with education. He feels that as a black man you need to get your college degree and even though we don’t always agree on that, I’m going to do it for him. He’s done the utmost for me and he’s always shown me out of anyone that he’s going to ride for me until the end so I’m going to get him this degree.”

“In 2019 I lost 10 people, Im only 18 and I have more people dead then I have years on this planet. That’s not normal. I wouldn’t choose no other life though, because it’s my life and it gave me the story I’m able to tell you today.”

– YoungWill

han : Tell me more about Eye of the Trenches:

Eye of the Trenches represents me and my camera. The camera is the eye and the trenches is the hood. But the saying can be for anybody. It’s about striving and making it out. I’ve stepped in every hood in Chicago and I’ve never been in no street nigga, but that’s who I grew up around. I want to see people make it out the trenches.. You can see a million things in the pictures I’ve taken and the stories they tell. Some of them have been on obituaries of people who’ve passed including Domo’s. That’s why I call myself the Eye of the Trenches.

han : When are videos Better?

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