New York, NY (Top40 Charts / Mind Over Music Group) It's not everyday that a young musician gets to wake up and film a music video with an established, highly influential artist who has sold millions of albums worldwide. This isn't the case for Rooky, an emerging pop artist from New York City , who has now collaborated with living legend DMC of "Run-DMC" on a song titled "Live Forever," the first and only dance pop track in DMC's career; in addition, the music video is now available on YouTube, through Mind Over
Music Group, a subsidiary of Mind Over Media Group.
Prior to working with Mind Over
Music Group, Rooky was heavily influenced by the work of Prince, and got his start as a frontman and guitarist in local rock bands before jumping into emceeing private parties at larger than life venues like Yankee Stadium and the Park Avenue Armory. In just a short amount of time, Rooky has also worked with billboard topping artists such as
Justin Timberlake , Macklemore,
Austin Mahone ,
Flo Rida , and
Mac Miller . Furthermore, Rooky is also an experienced model; he is known for being the face of Verizon's 2013 Fios Campaign, and has appeared in
Maxim Magazine with Jwoww of the Jersey Shore.
"The crazy thing is that the video is a major compliment to the song and that's a hard thing to accomplish nowadays. I should have known what I was in for when I asked Rooky who his favorite artist was...and he said Prince!" said DMC.
Manager Nick Schlatmann explains how "
Live Forever" came together. "'Live Forever' was a track that Rooky brought to me that instantly had my attention," said Schlatmann. "I remember hearing the potential right from the start but I wanted to vault it until the right situation came along to release it. That opportunity came a few months later following a meeting with DMC."
Darryl McDaniels , known in the music industry as "DMC," was one of the two original members in the legendary hip hop group Run-DMC. Having achieved worldwide success during the 80's into the 90's, DMC has released six albums with Run-DMC, as well as two solo albums on his own. After hearing about "Live Forever," DMC immediately headed to the studio to make things happen.
"When Nick came to me and told me he had this incredible artist he was working with, and we started discussing the idea of collaborating; I had no idea we would be making such amazing music and visuals," said DMC. "They played me a couple of tracks to choose from and I loved them all, but there was something about Live Forever that completely touched the ears and soul! The song was well produced and written!"
The music video was originally set to be shot over a three day period; surprisingly, shooting was completed in just one day. The video is horror themed and features post-apocalyptic zombie scenes meeting an extreme masquerade that would make
Lady Gaga jealous. Despite being done in a short period of time, Schlatmann commented on the work behind the music video.
"A lot of hard work and man hours went into the development of this video," said Schlatmann. "We probably wrote four or five different treatments before we got the exact feel and vibe we wanted. Bringing the track along from the very first rough cut to what it is now with the legendary DMC attached to it has been an amazing experience. The camaraderie on set was incredible and the end result of the video is evidence of that."
"I am extremely excited to show the world what we've created here, and I couldn't be more thankful for how everything came out," said Rooky. "The song,the music video, everything was a labor of love in the fullest sense of the phrase. It was a blast to work with such extraordinarily talented people, especially a living legend like DMC."
For more information, feel free to visit MINDOVERMEDIAGROUP.COM and ROOKYOFFICIAL.COM
