Hype Williams is hip-hop's most wanted video director, a college dropout who grew up in Queens and paid his dues manning the smoke machine on film sets. Williams is the guy behind some of the most visually rich clips: Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It by Will Smith, I'll Be Missing You by Puff Daddy, Sweetheart by Mariah Carey, The Rain by Missy Elliott, No Scrubs by TLC and Big Pimpin' by Jay-Z. Known for using multiple camera speeds, fish-eye lenses, reverse angles, flamboyant costumes and futuristic sets, Williams holds court in the Guinness Book of World Records under costliest special effects in a video ($2.4 million for What's It Gonna Be? by Busta Rhymes and Janet Jackson). He even managed to make khaki pants look cool in a Gap commercial. His latest project is Follow the Leader, a behind-the-scenes book about his video shoots. "I helped put that larger-than-life spin on the music," Williams says. (We never said he was modest.) "If rap videos were big, I made them look bigger. Rap artists were talented, but I made them look more talented. Hip-hop wasn't a fashion thing before I was doing it. It was never like it is now, where de-signers like Donatella Versace know the rappers. It's similar to the Forties, when certain musicians, artists and actors were part of a fashion-design clique. Now, it's us. It's Lauryn Hill and Busta." Williams' high-gloss style is not for everyone. Though his feature film directorial debut was named movie of the year at The Source's 1999 Hip-Hop Music Awards, critics deemed Belly a flop. The flick was also slammed by Magic Johnson, whose theater chain refused to show it because of its "overwhelmingly negative and violent depictions of African Americans, as well as its potential to create disruptive situations for our theaters' patrons and employees." Unscathed, Williams responded with trademark aplomb: "Censoring this film is akin to turning a blind eye to what's happening in today's cities." And then he picked up his camera and continued on his way.
