Now that Mother's Day is officially behind us, is it too early to start talking about Father's Day? If you're looking for a way to show pops you care (besides showering him with socks and neckties next month) you might wanna pass along rapper Nu3tron's latest video, “Like Father Like Son.” The latest tidbit from the rapper born Matthew Leonard is served up as a black and white day-in-the-life of his dad, Gary. Right away, we can tell where he gets his tough guy rapper poses from.
Even if you're not familiar with the Anaheim emcee's boisterous brand of boom bap–long gestating under the umbrella of OC collective Technicali sound–any hip-hop head knows that the virtues of being a starving rapper means there's always a new story of strife to splatter over a beat. In Nu3tron's case, highlighting his dad's daily grind is supposed draw a clear link to his struggles as a rapper. The song's four-and-a-half minutes (produced by LDontheCut) is a crash course in true manhood.
Papa, where you goin'? You're always gone, always working hard, always on your job/ He says “Son, there's no time for sleeping/ Life is unfair and the pay isn't decent/ Someone's gotta pay the bills, he works weekends / Over time grind and he sinks his teeth in.
We talked to Nu3tron about shooting this touching ode to his old man.
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On planning (or not planning) the video shoot
When we showed up, the neighborhood to film everyone around there just kinda swarmed around us. And these kids were outside and they kept getting in the shot. I was getting frustrated and I kept just telling the kids “wait, I'll get you in the video, I swear. It was hilarious. So after I was done, I just let them have their time, and we filmed some fathers in the neighborhood with their kids and stuff, so it was cool. It was one of those shoots where everything fell into place and wasn't so planned out. All my brothers are in the video too. At the end we line all of us up together to get a shot of all of us with my dad for the end. You're not gonna see any rappers with thick chains and low riders and girls and stuff that never happens in a neighborhood like that.
On filming his dad, the diva
My dad was like a super diva [laughs] while we were filming. Every time we shot a piece with him, after it was done he'd just leave and be like “tell me when you want me to shoot.” You could tell even though he was being difficult that he like felt cool, ya know? And he's typically the classic ornery old man. Everyone in my neighborhood knows my dad and he's like the neighborhood dad. I'll walk up to his patio some times and it'll be full of all these teenagers like hanging out, smoking cigarettes and listening to his life stories on repeat. A lot of the kids call him dad in the neighborhood.
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