Jehst’s Starting Over by Ian Pons Jewell

A video that wrongfooted a good many British hip-hop fans - and all because of a few seconds of shaky camcorder footage of a postman delivering the mail...

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=JRdOyhdIP70

This had the UK hip-hop scene abuzz with the rumour that missing-in-action rapper Jehst was now reduced to Royal Mail employee status - and what that said about the state of British rap. But the true intent of the Jehst Is My Postman!!!!!... Pt 1 footage becomes clear with the arrival of Part 2...

With that it becomes clear that Ian Pons Jewell has orchestrated a very effective viral campaign for the benefit of Jehst's new track Starting Over, by simple virtue of releasing his shakycam prelude ahead of the main event - which is a whole lot slicker.

"I was asked to do a video for Jehst, so I had the idea to film him in some sort of dayjob and have it look like a weirdo fan had filmed him through his window and posted it up on youtube - in order to create a narrative experience over time," Ian explains. "The idea was that we would then have the guy film him again, but reveal the joke through it shifting into a high-end looking music video - but with Jehst as a postman, handing out letters to various hiphop acts."

Featured in the video are Chemo, United Vibrations, Teef, Stig of the Dump, Micall Parknsun, Q Unique, SEPST*R, Jyager and Kid Kanevil, and Ian points out that with so many fans having fallen hook, line and sinker that one of their idols had fallen on more unglamourous times, the actual video has been greeted positively - not least because it means that Jehst is releasing his first album in five years.

And he defends his artful exercise in trolling. "It worked perfectly. It caused a huge debate in the comments and elsewhere on forums, and word of mouth, about the state of UK hiphop. Then this came out and it's fired a lot of people up in a good way, with many excited for Jehst's comeback."

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=GSkiTj6oXAk