Director Calmatic got his start in music videos where he worked with Childish Gambino, Pulitzer Prize winning rapper Kendrick Lamar, and Lil Nas X. For the latter, he helmed the mega viral vid for "Old Town Road.” He’s also made commercials, including the new Super Bowl ad for crypto.com, which features both a present day and digitally de-aged LeBron James. Recently, he’s been behind the remakes of two hit ‘90s films, House Party (now on MAX) and White Men Can't Jump (on Hulu).
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For his Treat, Calmatic shares that Lamar's 2015 release To Pimp a Butterfly holds the title of his all-time favorite album. He commends Lamar's boldness in straying from mainstream artistic expectations, opting instead to experiment. As he reflects on his time spent working with Lamar, Calmatic underscores the album's genuine essence and its celebration of community. Calmatic emphasizes Butterfly’s significance in storytelling, cultural representation, and how it has inspired his own filmmaking.
This segment has been edited and condensed for clarity.
One of my favorite albums of all time is To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar.
Him making that album at that point in his career was super inspirational for me because I feel like he decided to do exactly what he wanted to do. It was him coming off of his first album with a lot of success and everyone's expecting his second album to top that. Instead of doing the obvious thing of going pop and making bigger songs, he really tapped into the artists, the sound, and the creators that felt like [they] influenced him the most.
I worked with Kendrick and I think that's probably what adds to the love for the album. I know him and I know where he was coming from. So for him to do that, it was like 'yeah, we can do what we want to do. You're going to love it and if you don't, I don't care because I did it for me.' And I think that's the point.
Wesley's Theory ft. George Clinton and Thundercat - Kendrick Lamar
He brought in Terrace Martin, he brought in George Clinton, all these LA natives that [in Clinton’s case] created this sound that we love called funk. It's about bringing in that community of people that understand your story to help you tell your story. Not to mention the Tupac element at the end. It's just a perfect album, a perfect body of work where if you know, you know. If you know those references, if you know the inspiration behind some of those themes, it just means so much more. I aspire for my films to feel the way that the album sounds.
Mortal Man - Kendrick Lamar
A lot of the artists that I love like singers, songwriters, rappers… I think they're my favorite[s] because they do what I think that I would do if I was a rapper. I feel like if I was a rapper, I would have made To Pimp A Butterfly. I would've called Terrace Martin, I would call Robert Glasper, Lalah Hathaway, and Knxwledge and be like 'yo, let's make an album about LA.' I think I could just relate to it on so many levels and like nothing else. Like no other piece of art that I really took in hit me as hard as Butterfly. I think it's safe to say that it's my favorite album of all time.
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