He has worked with Drake and Chris Brown, been nominated for an MTV Video Music Award, and has been on an upward trend in his video production and hip hop career since leaving his sales career behind. We caught up with Marco Dinero for this exclusive interview…
Hi Marco! Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. Tell us about yourself, and how you got into making music videos?
I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and I have always been creative since a kid, from writing comic books in the 3rd grade, to making my own rap videos at the age of 12, and excelling at photography in college. I’ve always felt I was destined to do something in the creative field. I honestly moved across the country to Los Angeles to further a sales career that I found success in, while living in New York. But just living in LA, opened doors for the career I really wanted, and when I was asked to work on a Kendrick Lamar music video, I quickly accepted, loved the experience, and in less than a month, I quit sales and pursued a career in Film & Production.
What was it like to be nominated for the VMAs? Did you go to the ceremony?
It was kinda surreal. By the time I was nominated, I had worked on over 200 music videos in 3 years, but none of them ever won awards or were recognized beyond YouTube. To think, we could have won our very own Moonman, is all the motivation I would ever need excel in this industry. I grew up on thinking the MTV Moonman was one of the coolest awards you could win, next to a Grammy, which is a potential for us to be nominated for as well. Fingers crossed.
You’ve worked with some pretty notable artists. Who is the “biggest” artist and tell us what the shoot was like.
Drake. I assisted production on No Guidance with him and Chris Brown in Miami. It was back to back 90 degree, humid days, and I don’t think I sat down for 24 hours filming in this giant parking structure, with every luxury car in Miami and hundreds of crew and background extras. I got so busy setting up a scene, the director started recording while I’m in the background of this scene with Drake, I didn’t even notice they were recording until the Director Chris Robinson started yelling at me to hide my walkie talkie. I turn around and it’s lights, camera, action! Drake is acting and you can see me in the video if you look closely, but don’t blink lol.
What is your favorite video that you’ve done so far and why. Tell us about it.
My favorite video so far has been Sza “Good Days,” with AJR FILMS. It was one of the first moments I got to work closely with an artist, hearing their ideas, going back and forth with possibilities, and bringing it all into fruition. Putting the pieces together for that video was not easy, but the end result was amazing and worth all the hard work. We had 10 foot mushrooms, an amazing library pole dancing set up, and some of the best crew in the industry.
Who would be your dream artist to work with and why?
Jay-Z. I grew up in Brooklyn, and Jay-Z’s music has been the soundtrack to my life since Volume 2: Hard Knock Life in 1998. Coincidentally, I ended up living with my cousin in Marcy Projects, where Jay-Z grew up, when I got expelled from college at 19 years old. As I got older, more mature and started understanding his lyrics better, he became the greatest rapper of all time, in my opinion. So working with Jay-Z would be an honor, and would easily be one of the most motivational moments of my life.