JLShotThat is Brooklyn Drill’s Go-To Music Video Director
JLShotThat is a key figure in the Brooklyn drill movement, and one you may have seen pop up in the background of some of your favorite clips - whether he’s being adorned with custom jewelry by Fivio Foreign or dancing in a Triller with the late-great Pop Smoke. Few people are aware of his contributions to the careers of many of New York’s blossoming stars, and even fewer are prepared for what he has planned next. We wanted to sit down with the man responsible for some of the most iconic videos out of Brooklyn drill. Think of a dope music video you’ve seen recently from a New York artist… chances are good that JLShotThat.
Jeremi Thi Lam - professionally known as JLShotThat is a quiet professional and the man behind the camera for some of your favorite visuals out of New York City. Over the course of the last year, he has become a go-to director & videographer and an indispensable figure in the Brooklyn drill scene. His resume reads like a “Who’s Hot” list of New York rappers - having worked with everyone from the legendary Pop Smoke (RIP) and the heir-apparent Fivio Foreign, to LilTjay, Smoove’L, J.I., Young M.A., Jay Critch, and more.
JL is most known for his work with Fivio and the late-great Pop Smoke, and is credited with producing the videos for some of the hottest tracks out of NYC in 2019 and 2020 - including the video for Pop Smoke’s now platinum “Dior,” and “War” featuring LilTjay, as well as Fivio’s “Big Drip,” “Wetty,” and “Drive By,” and can’t forget LilTay’s “Zoo York” featuring Pop Smoke and Fivio Foreign. Through cinematic shots and subtle-yet-powerful storytelling, JLShotThat beautifully depicts the harsh realities of his subjects while managing to accurately capture the celebratory yet overwhelmingly dark nature of the music and environments from which they come. After just a few seconds of a JLShotThat video, it’s clear that everything this man touches is a ‘movie!’ (Fivio voice).
JL grew up in the 90’s and 00’s in Hollis, Queens in a family with a diverse background - his mother, Vietnamese and African and his father, West Indian and Irish. Originally, in his teenage years, he pursued a career in front of the camera as an artist - under the name Nemesis as part of a group called ‘Castle Boyz.’ After a dispute with their label, he went solo in 2013 and quickly dropped a well-received mixtape titled Already on Datpiff. It was during that time that he began learning about different sides of the music business - developing new skills including singing, songwriting, engineering, and eventually photography and videography; quietly gathering songwriting and production credits behind the scenes while building his impressive arsenal of talents.
The move towards the visual came when he bought his first camera. Inspired by legendary visual storytellers like Hype Williams, Quentin Tarantino, and Michael Jackson - at first he focused on photography, but quickly saw the need for high-quality, conceptual videos and started shooting music videos for local artists in Brooklyn and Queens. In the beginning, JL would outsource the editing. But after getting comfortable with the software - combined with his music experience over the past several years and his natural eye for composition - he soon became unstoppable.
The turning point came when he gave in fully to his creative impulses, self-commissioning his own passion project, “Ex Voto” - a cinematic heaven-and-hell dreamscape complete with full costume and shot in a roman-catholic cathedral. JL credits this project with opening people’s eyes to his abilities, because it was not long after that that his longtime friend Jerry Salutee asked him to shoot a video for one of his artists. It was early 2019. The artist was Fivio Foreign - and the song was “Welcome to the Party (Remix)” featuring Jay Dee, P Gutta, and Yung Drama. Already a hit before it was finished, the video took off, quickly reaching over 2M views. It became one of Fivio’s early hits, and was the drill scene’s formal introduction to the impeccable visuals of JLShotThat.
Before long, others began to take note and wanted their own hollywood-quality visuals. From there, he began to be introduced to other bubbling Brooklyn artists, including the late-great Pop Smoke. One fateful night in the studio with Fivio and Pop was all it took for JL to enter the fold, and quickly he became an indispensable visual storyteller for the pair of blossoming stars. Before anyone knew it, the “Dior” video was being shot and JL was on his way to becoming a prolific music video director.
In just over one year, JLShotThat-directed videos have amassed well over 200M views, with over 10M coming from his personal youtube channel. He’s worked with nearly every rising star out of New York, and directed videos for some of the most iconic moments of 2019. It’s safe to say that prices are going up for this talented director and videographer. Given his diverse and deep-seated skillset combined with his position within the culture, it’s hard to say what’s next for JL. Whatever it is, you can be sure it’ll be high quality and out-of-the-box. Get your budgets ready, because it won’t be long before the rest of the industry discovers the hidden gem that is JLShotThat.
Q&A with JLShotThat
Can you talk a little about what you were up to before directing and how you got started?
As far back as I can remember I was always picking up hobbies. In my 20s I decided to buy a camera and pick up photography. When I got bored of that I decided to buy a video camera. Because I was already working with artists and involved in the scene doing audio engineering, songwriting, etc. - and like I said, I was actually also an artist at what one point - it only made sense to start shooting music videos. So I did that for a while until one day all my equipment got stolen - which really sucked and set me back a lot. Pretty discouraged, I went back to engineering as my main thing for a while, until a friend of mine offered to let me rent his camera and equipment. I worked off a split with him for a while, until I realized I was actually doing all the work and bought the equipment outright. From there I dove full-on into shooting videos - eventually creating “Ex Voto”, and getting connected with higher profile artists.
Can you tell the story of how you got connected with Fivio Foreign for the “Welcome to the Party (Remix)” video?
So I first got connected with Fivio through my longtime friend, Jerry Salutee (@jerry_salutee3x). We’ve known each other basically since childhood - he’s always been tuned in and was actually a big reason I first decided to take the creative route. He had recently become Fivio’s manager and over the last couple years he’s seen me directing and doing my thing. I’ve always believed in Jerry and I liked what Fivio was doing with the music - so when he asked me if I wanted to shoot the “Welcome to the Party (Remix)” video, it made perfect sense. We all really liked how the video came out, and from there I started getting introduced and shooting videos for different people in the music scene and I was off from there.
What are the techniques/approaches/equipment/ etc. you use to create your unique style?
For all our videos we start with a strong concept. For almost all my videos, I work with the incredibly talented creative director, Million Dollah Rah (@milliondollahrah) - who’s part of our company Visionary Vision (@visionaryvisionllc). He’s a longtime friend and we’ve always believed in each other’s abilities and helped each other out wherever possible. He’s got a great eye and together we come up with the concepts, the storylines, we scout locations, and make all the decisions to put together a dope visual that tells a story.
And then of course I can’t forget to mention the rest of the Visionary Vision team - we got Roy Visualz (@royvisualz), Jedi (@Jedithegod), One Take (@one.take), CLASH (@clqsh), and Brayden Ahn (@simplrfilms). We’re a group of talented directors and creatives - and between us we have a ton of talent, experience, and definitely some big plans.
As far as techniques and equipment, I think quality and color are really important and what makes my work stand out. I focus on color a lot. I spend a lot of time on color grading, highlighting certain colors to match the mood of the song with the atmosphere and visual elements of the video - which I think is one of the keys to creating a strong aesthetic and vibe. I’ve also invested in some really good equipment that lets me shoot really high quality videos in 4 and 8K - which is another reason I think my work stands out.
How did you get connected with Pop Smoke? And what was it like to work with him?
Kind of an interesting story. The short answer is I got connected with Pop through Fivio. There was one night where Fivio was going to record and invited me along. Turned out he was going to meet up with Pop at the studio.
I don’t think Fivio even ended up recording that night, but while we were there I was shooting footage - and I could feel Pop’s energy checking out what I was doing. He came up and started asking questions about my equipment and what I do. I think he liked my answers and energy because right then and there he asked, “Do you want to shoot something for me?” And so that’s what I did. Literally that night I shot the footage that we used for the promo clip for “DIOR.” Pop showed the clip to his team - Steven Victor and the rest of the label. They called me into the office, had a good discussion, and we agreed that we would shoot the “DIOR” video together.
It took some adjustment working with a bigger team and the label, but it turned out to be one of the greatest learning experiences of my life - and really experiences period. When there were differences in opinion - Pop always advocated for me and even made sure I came along when they went overseas. He was always looking out. I think he appreciated my work ethic and attention to detail - I know those were things I admired in him. Travelling overseas with Pop on that trip was definitely one of the highlights of my life so far. I’m gonna miss him. He was a special person and a lot of people are missing him.
Is there anything you’re working on now or coming out soon that you can tell us about?
Yeah definitely. For sure got more stuff with Fivio coming. We just did the “Move Like a Boss Video” with Young M.A - and definitely got more with him on the way. Also got the Liltjay and JI video for “My City” coming out soon. For that one we actually had it mostly done and decided to go back to incorporate some of the footage from the protests and what’s been going on in the city. Also, another one out right now is “Try Shit” with Slayter and Jay Critch.
And of course, we also did the “Work” video with Obasi Jackson, Pop’s brother. That was a special one. Him and his people actually reached out to me about shooting the video. Also really appreciated them inviting me to the funeral. I was glad to be there.
So what does the future hold for JLShotThat? What are the long term plans?
More videos for sure. Definitely want to keep applying pressure, working with drill and hip hop artists - and also expand into other styles and genres. Also keep building out Visionary Vision with the guys - getting better and what we do and doing bigger and bigger projects. I’m also actively pursuing film and TV. Right now we’re actually working on a series that we pitched to Netflix. So hopefully you’ll be hearing more about that.
And then eventually I want to build out a big production company and in-house film studio. I’m really passionate about bringing new avenues and opportunities to the black community, especially in areas that I am connected to like music and film production. And doing it on a big scale - I’m thinking like Paramount or Tyler Perry Studios big. I would love to get more people from my community involved by showing them what’s possible through paths like professional video production. The ultimate goal is to be part of the process in helping to create more black filmmakers, movie stars, and generally bringing more people of color into the entertainment world.
Read more about the Brooklyn Drill Scene and the Life of Pop Smoke in the recent NY Times feature and video documentary (featuring footage from JLShotThat.)
Keep up with the latest from JLShotThat by following him @JLShotThat and @VisionaryVisionLLC on IG - and if you’re interested in his services be sure to check out JLShotThat.com … get in before you can’t!
