S. Samuel
Music video maker Director X has stepped forward to clear the air on the mystery lady who appears in rap star Drake's new "Started From the Bottom" music video.
According to X, they snagged on-screen vixen Maria Angelica Charuppi through necessity.
“I’ve known her forever. For a really long time. Everyone in this video is from Toronto. It’s a city, but its a town at the same time. So that’s my homie. The way God planned it, she was the closest to set. She’s the hottest girl, but she actually lives closest to Hamilton. Hamilton is where we shot the airport for the flying scene, so just for scheduling we had to shoot the drug mart close to there because of production rules. The day of when we didn’t have anybody, we were just like, ‘Call Maria [Angelica Charuppi], she lives in Hamilton.'” (Complex)
He also said they had to persuade her to miss school in order to knock out the cameo scene.
“We were like, ‘Don’t go to school today and come do this thing.’ So it just happened to be that the hottest girl on the planet lived 10 minutes from set when we were shooting in the middle of nowhere. She wants to do all that stuff in front of the camera. She’s a performer, so it’s possible. She’s gorgeous and she’s incredible. She’s not in the mix on the other side of the border so people are like, ‘What the f*ck just happened?'” (Complex)
Initial speculation suggested model Tassja Dawn was the “Started From the Bottom” beauty.
The guest in the video that was the easiest on the eyes was the scene-stealing cameo from model/actress/singer Tassja Dawn. If this Canadian songbird looks familiar to Drake fans, it is because she starred in the Grammy award-winning rapper’s first music video “Replacement Girl” way back in 2007. Dawn has also appeared in the video for Belly and Snoop Dogg‘s single “Hot Girl,” and was one of the 16 finalist in the 2009 Much Music VJ search. She’s also pursuing her own career in music as evident from her YouTube page. (HHW)
In a separate interview, X spoke on Drizzy wanting to capture the essence of throwback iconic music videos.
“It’s been a long time since people had seen a big video,” X explained. “His conversation with me, even when we did ‘HYFR,’ was that music videos didn’t have the impact that they used to have. Drake came up watching the videos that I made, and all of us made back in those days [when] Busta Rhymes was being chased by elephants, Diddy was jumping out of helicopters, driving Hummers in the desert and dancing with Jennifer Lopez.” (MTV)
Check out the ‘Started From the Bottom” music video:
