It’s beauty.
It's colorful, but it's also gritty.
That, for me, makes it real.
I aim for that shit.
I want some shit to be intentionally slightly sloppy here and there.
So that you can feel like this shit feels real, ‘cause it is.
The minute I heard the song, I was like, “I need this."
"Don't give this to anyone.”
The Latin community, we know.
That's an instant hit.
It's crazy how I've worked with Cardi in the past.
I remember her when I was doing videos for other artists and Cardi would come in and
do background.
It's amazing how everything comes full circle.
When I first heard the record, the first thing that came to my mind was the movie.
It's a funny movie, great movie.
It starts off with like this crazy neighborhood action happening in the Bronx.
You have these kids running by, cars, girls pulling up in Jeeps, cell phones, windows.
So I immediately thought of that, like it had to feel like a street video, but also
pretty and everything else.
For me, I would have loved to have done it in the Bronx, and replicate that whole look,
But we had to deal with Miami, and I just had to adjust.
We went down to this location in Miami called Calle Ocho.
Cuban area, a lot of Cuban scenes and everything else.
I found this one block that had enough elements in there that I knew could work.
Then we came in and kind of dressed it up some more, like we put some more palm trees
in there.
I needed that ice machine.
Growing up in the South Bronx, that was called a piragua.
That's a benefit of growing up Latino in the South Bronx in the '80s, and being able to
know these things that are culturally important to us.
That one hallway scene where she comes out with the yellow dress was an actual entrance
to a restaurant.
It was just maybe about 30 or 40 feet of this one space we're seeing here.
I have to have the camera just capture a certain parts of it.
Then we go to this pink wall.
This is her frame.
No joke.
That's about as much as was there.
It was just a bunch of fucking graffiti shit, you know.
There's my old tag name there.
In post, just added all this, all the pink elements to that.
This shot here, this is what we call the hero shot, ‘cause it makes you look bigger than
life.
It's a move where you come from below and then you come up high, you rise up high.
It's almost showcasing a person off for the first time.
It's like here I am, bigger than life.
She just wore this dress.
She wanted to flow.
She wanted to feel Caribbean in a way.
It hid the fact that she was eight and a half months pregnant.
This was actually shot two weeks prior to the release of the actual video.
Cardi is special.
She's a light switch.
When that camera turns on, she's a star.
All her movements, her mannerisms, everything was on her own.
I didn't have to instruct her much.
It was no complaining. No “It's too hot."
"I got to get the fuck out of here."
"I'm hot."
"I'm pregnant.”
It was none of that.
I wanted Bad Bunny to have that street hood feel.
This is about a block or two away from where we shot Cardi doing the walk.
Everything is one continuous flow with that girl coming across, running, giving him the
note.
He reads it, and then we start pulling away with him as he starts performing.
We parked an old school car there.
We put the old folks back here, just hanging out, playing cards, dominoes.
It was just this moment was just about Bunny on his block.
I imagined it like a play, almost like the ‘West Side Story.'
Where I kind of wanted everyone just hanging out, chilling.
Then all of a sudden this girl gives him the card.
He looks at it, and he just kind of breaks into this performance.
Bad Bunny to me is like the Latin Lil Wayne.
He's an animal.
It's like I want to see that come out of him.
This particular setup was actually part of Bad Bunny's solo performance.
Bad Bunny comes to me, and he's like, "Can I smoke a hookah on set?"
We're not doing a world star video, right?
I'm like, "This isn't a world star video."
Always give the artist, or try what the artist wants.
DJ Khaled voice, that’s a major key.
I thought it was hilarious because he just doesn't give a fuck.
For Balvin, this was actually a restaurant. And it had this Latin feel to it.
They had a live band there, so I kind of incorporated that into it.
Those were actually the real band who plays there.
It was his first time working with me.
I just told him, “Do you. Give me that energy."
I don't think he was sure or aware of what I was going to do in the edit.
When he got the link to the videos, no changes from Balvin.
He was like, “This needs to go out today.”
I wanted Cardi to have a neighborhood feel, I wanted Bad Bunny to have that street hood
feel, and then I wanted you to go into Balvin's world and kind of see this whole club scene.
I wanted the viewer to live in all these different spaces as they go along within the video.
I would have been devastated if I didn't do this video.
I was like I'm Latin, I'm from the Bronx, she's from the Bronx, I've shot Bunny, I haven't
shot Balvin, and I was like...
It was meant to be.
Look at Cardi looking amazing right?
This is a great monitor.
I edit like on a old black and white TV.