Hype Williams

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Harold "Hype" Williams (born 1970 in Queens, New York) is an American music video and film director of African-American and Honduran descent. The son of working-class parents, he grew up wanting to be a painter. Williams displayed his work by tagging local billboards, storefronts, and playgrounds using HYPE as his graffiti tag. "That's probably what stimulated my interests in color," he says. "I wanted to be Basquiat or Keith Haring of the streets." [1].

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"Hype" Williams was so named by writing partner Muse One, who taught him the ins and outs of graffiti. He was also mentored by "Fargo" in graffiti culture. Williams began his film-making career when he left Adelphi University in Garden City, NY, and joined with fellow graffiti writers Mike "Muse" Alexander and Ricardo "Phyz" Springer to create SOTA (State of the Art Productions). Under that unbrella SOTA created logo and album cover designs for many hip-hop artists of the time. Their big break came when they began working with Classic Concepts Video Productions. Lionel "Vid Kid" Martin & VJ Ralph McDaniels used SOTA for art direction in many of their videos and created Hype's first opportunity with the "Filmakers With Attitude" moniker (FWA), which was Hype's first video company. SOTA's development of the "Rhythm Is The Master" promotion for Polygram/Van Gibbs/Chuck Chillout Album project projected SOTA and Hype's artistic foresight ahead of the rest. The writing and drawing of the comic book, with Michael "The Talent" Laing as main artist, set SOTA ahead of the pack, as their work on the video of the same title broke ground for animation in a hip-hop video.

Williams is notable for creating a number of groundbreaking and successful music videos for hip hop and R&B artists such as Craig Mack ("Flava In Ya Ear"), LL Cool J ("Doin' It"), Nas ("If I Ruled The World (Imagine That)", "Street Dreams"), Missy Elliott ("The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)", "She's a Bitch"), Busta Rhymes ("Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See"), Kelis ("Caught Out There"), and Jay-Z ("Big Pimpin'").

In 1998, he directed his first feature film, Belly.

Williams "signature style", although it is not exhibited in all videos, involves shots placed in regular widescreen ratio, while another set of shots is placed in the spaces which would normally be left blank in widescreen ratio videos. Videos that use this style include "Diamonds on my Neck" by Smitty, "I Ain't Heard of That" by Slim Thug, "So Sick" by Ne-Yo, and many others.

Awards Williams has received for his video work include the Billboard Music Video Award for Best Director of the Year (1996), the Jackson Limo Award for Best Rap Video of the Year (1996) for Busta Rhymes' "Woo Hah," the NAACP Image Award (1997), the 8th annual MVPA Award for Black Music Achievement (1997), MTV Video Music Award in the Best Rap Video (1998) category for Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It," MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video (1999) for TLC's "No Scrubs,” Winner of the BET Award for Best Director (2006) for Kanye West's “Gold Digger,”[2]

In 2006, Williams was honored by MTV with its Video Vanguard Award, presented in honor of his achievements, as Kanye West would put it, as a "film maker." He received a standing ovation.[3]


2007 is in full gear for Hype Williams. In addition to his film and video endeavors, Williams has joined forces with Corbis Outline as a celebrity photographer, partnered with Havas, the 6th largest global advertising and communications group worldwide that insiders claim is a groundbreaking media deal for the distribution of video content over the internet, and heard entertaining offers to release a fashion line.

Craig Mack in his video for "Flava in Your Ear [Remix]" (1994), directed by Hype Williams.
Craig Mack in his video for "Flava in Your Ear [Remix]" (1994), directed by Hype Williams.

  • Strickly Roots - "Duck the Boys in Blue"
  • Zhigge - "Rakin' in the Dough"
  • Cutty Ranks - "Living Condition"

Busta Rhymes in the video for his 1997 single "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See" (1997), directed by Hype Williams.
Busta Rhymes in the video for his 1997 single "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See" (1997), directed by Hype Williams.

Damon Dash and Jay-Z in the video for Jay-Z's 2000 single "Big Pimpin'", directed by Hype Williams.
Damon Dash and Jay-Z in the video for Jay-Z's 2000 single "Big Pimpin'", directed by Hype Williams.

  • Ashanti - "Rain On Me" (version 1)

  1. ^ [1]
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  3. ^ [3]
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