Music video director Ras Kassa of 'Welcome to Jamrock' fame got his major international break when he co-directed Sean Paul's latest video which was done for the single, 'Never Gonna Be the Same' alongside internationally recognised director Jesse Terrero who shot the infamous 50 Cent 'Candy Shop' video.
"It was a great vibe between me and Jesse, we shared ideas and I learned things from him and he maybe learned about how to make a Caribbean video, we just combined and the energy was great...the video is going to be great, some people say that it's the best song on his album," Ras Kassa of Guru Films said.
The video was shot on May 26th and May 27th in locations in Port Royal in East Kingston, Standpipe, St. Andrew and Jack's Hill in upper St. Andrew. It was the first time that Ras Kassa had worked with Sean Paul and Mr. Vegas since the project, 'Hot Gal Today' that was shot with Kevin Lee several years ago.
"It is Sean's first video in Jamaica since his international success, and it was great to be a part of the experience. We walked through Standpipe and featured Daddygon's brother Gaddy, it was an important video for Sean to do, and I am glad that we could have been a part of the project because it means a lot to Jamaica's own music video industry because the crew was 99.9 per cent Jamaica. Sean is well grounded and very very very real, we have to come together and support each other, or else reggaeton ah go run away with our glory," Ras Kassa warned.
Ras Kassa was nominated in the Best Music Video category for 'Welcome to the Jamrock' at the recent Vibe awards but eventually lost out to R. Kelly's 'Trapped in the Closet'.
"We won just being nominated in the first place, in that category, we were the only video that was shot on DVD, all those other videos were shot on 35 mm film, and the lowest budget for one was US$200,000, ours was not even US$50,000, we won just to make it there," he said.
The video will be edited in Los Angeles, and Kassa will be flying to that city to 'see how it ah gwaan'.
