Rebirth Rampage: 'Da Da Da'
Get ready for the "Rebirth Rampage." This weekend, MTV Jams will play four brand-new videos from Lil Wayne.
All the clips come from his Rebirth LP, and the lineup includes: "Knockout" with Nicki Minaj, "Runnin" with Shanell, and "Get a Life" and "Da Da Da," both with the rock band ¡Mayday! For the rest of this week, we will be previewing all four videos. First up is the "Da Da Da" clip.
We told you about this particular video in February. It was part of Wayne's incredible weekend of shooting almost a dozen videos in less than three days, when all the soon-to-premiere clips were shot.
David Rousseau, who had previously worked on Young Money's "Roger That" and Kevin Rudolf's "I Made It (Cash Money Heroes)," was commissioned by the Cash Money family to work with Weezy from Friday morning until Super Bowl Sunday morning.
"We shot some sh-- from the [We Are Young Money compilation] album, we shot something from [Wayne's forthcoming] Tha Carter IV, some stuff from Rebirth," the director told MTV News a few months ago. "We knew what our deadline was. We're trying to get maximum coverage for Wayne.
"We were put on hold," added Rousseau, who shot the videos in front of green screens and on a hotel rooftop. "Cash Money said, 'This is our deadline. This is a hard deadline.' It was basically a 'Mission: Impossible' [scenario]: This is your mission if you choose to accept it. Everybody is onboard, because everybody knows what's at stake. Unlike T.I. and some of these other guys that's disappeared while they were in, the point is to keep Wayne [visible] on TV and everything for whatever time he's in. There was a plan in action. Slim and Baby really could foresee that. He's at the height of his career. You can't let that momentum slip."
"Da Da Da" has the real-time feel of the "A Milli" video. We see Wayne, in the middle of Collins Street and 12th Avenue in Miami, get out of his tour bus and ride in a Maybach to the Marlin Hotel. The scene cuts to Wayne walking onto the rooftop of the hotel to a stage where ¡Mayday! is in place. The band begins to perform.
The performance in the video was live and unannounced, and we see everyone looking up while Weezy and company rock the strip. Onlookers whip out camera phones and flipcams to capture the moment. Weezy keeps his charisma high as he shows off for the crowd that forms in the street and fans watching from their terraces.
"He was in a zone," Rousseau said of Wayne. "He was ready. It was a work mentality. He's getting prepared for everything that's about to happen to him. He knows it's the fourth quarter. He was completely cooperative and completely professional."
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