Detroit native Vondie Curtis-Hall dropped by his hometown last week to swap notes with rapper-producer Kon Artis, who's cooking up the hip-hop score for the director's upcoming Universal crime drama, "Waist Deep."
Kon Artis, a prolific producer best known for his role alongside Eminem in D12, was enlisted by Curtis-Hall this summer to provide tracks for the film, due in April with Tyrese Gibson and rapper the Game in starring roles. Kon Artis promptly whipped up a series of what he calls mood music, based only on a reading of the movie's script.
"He was sending me stuff that was right on the money," says Curtis-Hall. "It's about making it authentic and feeling right."
The director says he was determined to find sounds that wouldn't date his movie down the road: "I wanted something that sounded timeless, and five years from now, his music will still sound classic."
Curtis-Hall made his big-screen directing debut with 1997's "Gridlock'd," starring Tupac Shakur; Kon Artis -- Denaun Porter to his grade-school teachers -- got his first run at Hollywood with a contribution to the "Shark Tale" soundtrack in '04
Source: Detroit Free Press
