Conversations with TeeDRay

Today we’d like to introduce you to TeeDRay.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Played Basketball and Football my whole life and as always loved music but could never see myself as a rapper or anything. Ended up saving up my money to buy a camera to shoot videos and once I graduated I finally bought one for about $400. When I first got the camera I would just have my partners rap people’s songs and I would record them with the camera and then I would practice editing. They would all tell me, “That’s hard bro, you hard!”. And at the time I knew I was terrible compared to what I could see myself being but I felt it was maybe a start. I went off to college after graduating and honestly went through a very deep depression. My Granddaddy who I had an important relationship passed and I was down on myself because I got to College at Winston Salem State University and had no clue what I wanted to do with my life.

When I got there I didn’t even know what I wanted to major in, I honestly just went because I guess it was the thing to do. I also was more so depressed because I am a very ambitious person and I always saw myself doing something out of the ordinary for my family, something special, something that brought lots of money and wealth and a way for my people to live more freely and something that allowed me to live freely. I just knew college was not it for me. After losing my granddad it took a toll on me and I just remember feeling very low. My granddaddy and great grandma have 11 kids so I have a big family so now that they were both gone it messed me up mentally because my family was falling apart… Everyone was arguing, fighting and I was like the kid from soul food who everyone loved because I had great relationships with my grandparents so they would listen to me and I could get them together but they still had their own problems within each other. I ended up finding a job while in college and another one so I had 2 jobs. My freshman year I think it was, an artist from my hometown hit me up about shooting a video for him for $60 and I was excited because I knew all I needed was an opportunity. I’ll never forget my little brother Racs letting me use his garage to shoot the video and it’s an experience I’ll never forget. I had bought some cheap lights and just did something with what I had. I remember after shooting the video, my brother Racs and I were out in front of his mom house and he told me, “Bro u harddd” and I’m like “you really think so??” lol and he like “yea man you gonna be working with Young Thug, YFN Lucci, Johnny Cinco, and all them artists that’s big bro!” and I’m like “Mannn you just saying that because your my brother” lol and he was like nah bro, I believe in you!” That changed my life, honestly.

After that, it stuck with me and I went back to school and started getting more videos in the city where I went to college. I started making a few hundred a video and I just saw progression. Then I ended up following this director in Atalanta on Instagram who at the time had a lot of experience filming all the biggest artists in the industry, Yo Gotti, Future, Young Thug, Lil Boosie, and many more. I was inspired by the captions on his posts and me being the genuine person I am, I would sometimes comment and let him know I was inspired and to keep going. He ended up liking some of my posts of my videos one day and the rest was history. I made contact with him and was preparing myself to go to Atlanta. So then, maybe a few days before I was supposed to go, the unthinkable happened. My dorm room caught on fire… My roommate and his girlfriend were cooking in the kitchen area of our apartment and I’m not sure if they just left the stove unattended or what but I walked in there and he was fighting a fire and she was standing there looking crazy. The sprinklers ended up coming on as soon as the fire hit the ceiling and flooded the room within minutes. It destroyed my new camera I had just saved up to buy and a lot of my other stuff.

After this, I felt LOW like lower than ever… I had just started to feel as if things were headed in a positive direction. Since I couldn’t go into my room I ended up going to my homie Mike dorm room and just venting a little. I had started feeling like I shouldn’t even go to Atlanta to work with the director I had met on Instagram anymore. But, til this day I am thankful for a friend like Mike because he told me, “NO bro GO! U hard, your work is dope bro!”. So I went because even though things were bad I’ve always felt that when everything is going bad like that, GOD has a BIG blessing right around the corner. So I packed what I had and got on the road. Once I got to Atlanta I went to his film studio warehouse and throughout that weekend I met some dope directors. I was actually the youngest there and the only one who hadn’t worked with any big names. These dudes had worked with T.I., Young Jeezy, Gucci Mane, Drake and many more. So I took the opportunity and soaked game. We worked with Worldstarthiphop Video Vixens the first day and the last day he walked in and told us ” get ready we about to go shoot Young Thug”. That experience changed my life, I soaked a lot of games and cherished the moment and took it in. I’m from a small town called Raeford, NC so this was a BIG blessing to me, where I’m from people don’t get a chance to see stuff like this on the regular at all. So I went back to school feeling refreshed, motivated and just good. I was still working my jobs but I started coming to Atlanta more until it eventually turned into every weekend.

A lot of times I would sleep in my car but I didn’t mind because I knew it had to pay off. Then I started sleeping on my cousin’s couch when I was there but at times that I didn’t want to ask or bother I would just park my car and take a nap til the sun came up. There was a lot of times artists and people would tell me they wanted me to come out and shoot and we agree on a number and I literally got stood up. I honestly was broke and could not afford that, it was a lot of time I drove back to NC angry and upset just feeling down of myself asking myself like would things really work out for me, then I was going back to school and I felt the majority of the friends I had at the time ain’t believe in me because I’d show my videos and they would watch 10 seconds and be like “yea yea man keep goin keep working”. Mentally I was drained and started to feel not so motivated at times but I knew GOD wouldn’t give me a taste of my dreams for no reason. Before my great granny Maggie Bell passed early in my life, she always would tell me I was special, I was the Golden One and I was going to be somebody and even though I was young and was seven when she passed, that always stuck with me so I didn’t give up. I knew she meant that, I knew she wasn’t just saying it, we had a beautiful relationship, til this day I still have yet to meet anyone like her, such a beautiful, pure soul. Then, I ended up meeting Shad Da God who is an artist in Atlanta and he invited me to the studio.

While there, I met Gunna and we set up a video shoot. He let me put together the idea and a week later I came back to Atlanta and the rest was history. At that time I had never made that amount of money for a video so I just felt grateful. I called up one of my guys I met on my first trip to Atlanta named Yorke to help with lighting and we killed the video with Gunna which was “Outta Sight Outta Mind”. After that, more people booked me in NC but I was now in Atlanta every weekend. Me and Gunna kept working and then I ended up shooting a video with Shad Da God and Young Thug. I edited that video within 7 hours lol, literally on my way back driving from Atlanta to NC. We dropped that and it did a million on Worldstar in like two days. After that, I knew GOD had more in store for me and everyone was in tune now. From there I just kept going and many other big artists reached out and we worked and I continued to build my name and progress with my work. I was in Atlanta every weekend, literally. Next thing you know I had more and more videos with Millions of views and was working with more big artists and getting calls from labels, building business relationships and I was traveling the world filming music videos. I never stopped believing in myself even when no one could see the vision but me.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s definitely been a journey, I’ve slept in my car, lost quite a few important loved ones, been broke, been overlooked at first, car got broken into after I invested the little money I had at the time into equipment and it all got stolen, worked two jobs while pursuing my career as a director at first, been told no or stood up a million times. There was even sometimes weeks I drove back and forth to Atlanta and NC 3 or 4 times and didn’t make any money. There were times I would get out of class in NC at 3:15pm, get on the road to drive 5-6 hrs to ATL, shoot a video, finish at like 2 or 3am then get back on the road to NC and be like 3 min late to my 8am class. Just a lot of different things but I never stopped going. There is beauty in all those things because they are all just lessons that mend you into the better person that you need to be.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am TeeDRay, Director and CEO of CinematicShotz By TeeDRay and we are an international film production company that is based out of Atlanta, Georgia. We’ve worked with a variety of artists such as: Young Thug, NBA Youngboy, Wiz Khalifa, Gunna, Chris Brown, and more and have created a brand that has stood out amongst many. On platforms such as Worldstar Hip-Hop, Fader, Revolt, Hotnewhiphop and more as well as YouTube, we have accumulated over 100 million+ views.

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Never give up. Always bet on yourself and believe in your vision. A lot of people give up and the big blessing could’ve been RIGHT around the corner waiting on them, have faith in what you cannot see. That’s the beauty of all this. I sacrificed my college life, all the partying and stuff because I was locked in every weekend putting the work in. So be sure to sacrifice for what you want. It will all pay off. You have to take risks or things more than likely won’t work out. If it scares you, then do it. We only live once, do what you feel. Also, understand it takes hard work, if it was easy everyone would be doing it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vimeo.com/760103343
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teedray/?hl=en

Image Credits
@PureV_ision @zellyfamous @_arrington1 @zellyfamous @zellyfamous @TeeDRay @zellyfamus