Guerillas are a cunning breed. Quick-witted and decisive, they have a knack for balancing speed and results. Music video director Rik Cordero isn't fighting any wars, but guerilla principles guide his career. Those principles inspire Cordero, 28, to ambush city streets to capture a natural quality that extras on a soundstage cannot provide. They are also present when property owners chase him from a location crucial to a filming project, forcing the Queens, N.Y., native to instantly adapt his vision. No matter the challenges – limited finances and stringent time restraints be damned – he must reach his objective.

Cordero polished his "guerilla filmmaking" skills in true self-starter fashion. In 1999, armed with only a degree in graphic design and a passion for art, he formed Three21 Media, a non-traditional production company. His ability to create filet-mignon on a steak-and-cheese budget led to work with Beanie Sigel, Joell Ortiz, Joe Budden, and even former American Idol contestant Constantine Maroulis. The renegade auteur's breakout moment came in September 2007 when Def Jam representatives tapped him to film the trailer for Jay-Z's "Blue Magic" single. Cordero answered with an artful depiction of the shadowy path that "the product" travels from producer to consumer. The gritty trailer received J-Hova's approval and soon became Three21's most-watched, most-talked-about production.

Breaking from tradition is a necessity for a young director like Cordero. Weak album sales have caused record companies to be more conservative with video budgets. The days of spending nearly $3 million for Diddy to elude SWAT teams and massive explosions in "Victory" are all but finished. As he made preparations to shoot a video for rap duo Kidz in the Hall, HipHopDX spoke with Cordero about the changing industry and how his directorial style will fit in this new era.

HipHopDX: What exactly is guerilla filming?
Rik Cordero: It's pretty much shooting by any means necessary. That includes going out into the streets without [filming] permits or the usual stuff that filmmaking entails – even no insurance sometimes. It's just using your environment and your resources to the best of your ability.

DX: Has that ever presented problems in the past?
RK: Not really. I think the way Three21 – how we function – we work well within our resources. Rather than try to throw money at the problems that always arise during a shoot, we come up with creative solutions to solve them. I think we've really learned how to work in pretty much any condition.

DX: Smif-n-Wessun's "Stomp" showed that the right lighting and camera techniques could make or break a video. Where did you get the idea for that style?
RK: The idea for that was pretty much the older '90s videos where it's just artists moving. It's a raw video where Smif-n-Wessun and Joell Ortiz are just attacking the song and spitting great verses. So it's like, "How do I complement this without being too typical?" The original idea was that we were going to shoot at some construction site. We tried to shoot it there, but they kicked us out, so we just found this location with a bunch of rocks and used it. Not really having a plan is what made that video. We found this weird location in Brooklyn and we kind of winged it. [Three21] actually ends up having to wing it a lot actually. We always have something planned and prepared, but it's good to be flexible.

DX: The "Blue Magic" trailer is your most known work. How did you land that opportunity?
RK: Last year I was running around the Def Jam offices networking and meeting everyone. The marketing department had this idea to come up with something different to announce Jay's return to music again. They told us that the album would be inspired by American Gangster and that was our only direction. They told us, "This is a scene where you see Frank Lucas' apartment and they're packaging drugs." That was it.
When I met Jay, he was like, "I see you're getting your name out there," which was kind of crazy because I had no idea he knew of anything else that I did. I don't know if he's on YouTube all the time. [Laughing] He could have just been being nice, but it was cool. I thought it was interesting that he gave the thumbs up to something that wasn't produced with a whole lot of money, but he gave it the thumbs up because it nailed the tone of American Gangster and the Reasonable Doubt era of Jay-Z that was more street. Having that first visual look for that album was huge for us.

Jay-Z - Blue Magic Trailer

DX: What's the response been like?
RK: It snowballed after that and still is…we're working with Duck Down Records now. They just signed Kidz in the Hall and we're actually shooting their video tomorrow. We worked closely with Consequence and a lot of the upcoming acts on Def Jam like Razah. We just did a shoot with Consequence and John Legend that's going to premiere on Valentine's Day. We also have the Pete Rock and Redman video coming out there we're going to shoot in two weeks. Continued on page 2 »