'The South Carolina Rap' pokes fun at state's comedic characteristics
Tractors, camo and the Confederate Army — from Columbia to the Lowcountry — spotlight, in the best possible way, USC’s home state in Dinobrite Production’s newest video “The South Carolina Rap.”
“It is a parody of everything South Carolina isn’t, and a celebration of everything we are,” Fabio Frey, a USC alumnus and co-CEO of Dinobrite, said.
“Our goal is to poke fun at some of the obvious flaws in S.C., but still admire it for the beautiful state it is,” added Joey Thompson, USC alumnus and other half of the Dinobrite management.
The rap parody, which features the hip-hop vocal stylings of Frey and Thompson, was a project for the Colonial Life Arena. Dinobrite was contracted to put together the video for the arena’s annual business conference in June.
“The question we always get asked is: ‘Is that you really rapping?’.” Thompson said. “Yes, it’s really us.”
Frey channeled his inner Rick Ross, while Thompson relied more on the talents of Lil Boosie, or a high-pitched Lil Wayne, according to Thompson, to secure a flow of lyrics about everything S.C. from Gov. Nikki Haley to Myrtle Beach.
Dinobrite also recruited the help of a few local players in the rap game — Boss G, Diverse and DJ J Magic — in their journey from Greenville, to York, to Charleston and everywhere in between.
Boss G, the “premiere rapper in S.C.,” according to Thompson, makes a special appearance in the video, with an overlay at the end that reads “Free Boss G.”
After the filming of the video, Boss G was arrested for drug trafficking charges and is now in jail.
“He is actually a very well articulated person, and he had a lot of interpersonal thoughts about his family and the music; he’s just trying to clear his name and his reputation,” Thompson said in reference to Boss.
Thompson and Frey have spent the past four months filming, editing and producing this video and are now seeking national attention from sites like worldstarhiphop.com and the Huffington Post.
The duo, and their first-ever intern Jake “Crispy White” Carter, a fourth-year media arts student,unveiled the final product at a launch party at Bey’s last Thursday night.
“Fabio and I had literally just finished editing the video, and had slept about 45 minutes in 45 hours,” Thompson said.
Although they have already been picked up by FITSNews and have garnered attention from the USC crowd, Dinobrite believes the video has a grander appeal.
“Professionally, I think it’s the best video we’ve ever made,” Thompson said. “We have the product, and now it’s all about distributing the product.”
Dinobrite Productions is now run out of USC’s technology incubator, which gives student and graduate companies an office for two years.
“Our goal is to become the number one creative video force in S.C., and to become one of the premiere video forces in 10 years,” Thompson said. “We’re running an evil empire here.”
Thompson and Frey also hope to one day have their own TV show.
“I like Jay-Z — he’s been able to stay creative and still run a business, and assimilate a lot of new musicians into his empire,” Thompson said.
Dinobrite’s “The South Carolina Rap” can be found on their YouTube channel at youtube.com/dinobrite.