#174: Director Nabil Elderkin

This week on A Waste of Time with ItsTheReal, we found ourselves back on the West Coast, and welcomed into the house of dynamic photographer, music video visionary and feature film director Nabil Elderkin! Nabil talks about growing up in Port Macquarie, Australia, taking up photography after surfing and lifeguarding didn't prove fruitful, failing high school photography due to his pushing boundaries, and his father sending him to live with his mother in America. We discuss finishing high school in Chicago, photographing the local music scene, and landing on the sounds of an up-and-coming producer/rapper named Kanye West. Nabil speaks on buying KanyeWest.com and trading it to Roc-A-Fella Records for a chance to photograph Kanye, becoming Ye's trusted documentarian, working with Don C, Twista, Consequence, and Coodie & Chike, meeting will.i.am who asked him to direct a music video for the Black Eyed Peas, and transforming that into directing career, shooting Ye's Throw Some D's (Remix), John Legend's All of Me, Kendrick Lamar's DNA, G.O.O.D. Music's Mercy, and many more. And as Nabil finishes preparations for Gully, his first feature film which has been four years in the making, we get into meeting Nelson Mandela, documenting war-torn Rawanda, exhibiting at the UN, running around Kanye's stage shows, the energy of the Watch the Throne tour, attending John Legend and Chrissy Teigen's wedding, how Don Cheadle improvised on set, directing a Super Bowl commercial with Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott, Peter Dinklage and Morgan Freeman, and much, much more!