Deto 22 sips from a mug while the words “can use a cup of coffee” are heard. Then Sketch tha Cataclysm breaks out in dance and verse: “Even when the drama begins, yo, that problem ain’t a problem. That’s it. I wanna live.”
The caffeine and kinetic energy kick in immediately with “Red Eye,” the new video from The 50x50s, the team of Connecticut — based producer Deto 22 and New Haven-based artist Sketch tha Cataclysm. The video highlights the A‑side of their new single, released with the B‑side “Kölsch.”
According to Sketch — also known as Armando Acevedo II — the video had a purpose beyond promoting the new record: bringing together some of the most important people in Acevedo’s life, in the New Haven music community and beyond, to spread some joy.
“It’s a celebration of life … just wanting to be alive,” said Acevedo. “I wanted to hit up my friends and people who are important to me and I love in the scene, especially if they don’t normally or publicly dance.” One of those people was his 50x50s partner. Acevedo was also inspired to create a dance specifically for Red Eye while recording it.
“There’s gonna be a dance to this song,” Acevedo recalled telling Deto. “Deto laughed, and I said ‘you’ve gotta dance too.’ He was into it, though he’s not a dance person. I’ve always danced,” he added, and “I wanted to use all of my tools and also wanted to build on collaboration.”
Collaboration is at the core of The 50x50s, born out of a project the two artists created over ten years ago — the 2009 album Sharing Is Caring.
The 50x50s Photos
The 50x50s (Deto 22 and Sketch tha Cataclysm)
“We had the ten-year anniversary reissue of the Sharing Is Caring project at the end of 2019, and that coincided with energy from Deto,” said Acevedo. “He was getting more productive with music and was reinvigorated with the promotion for the reissue.”
Deto began working more with production and new beats while Acevedo had the idea to make new videos for a couple of the reissued songs. That led to Deto making one for the song “This Much Hip Hop” and Acevedo making one for “Inspired by Conversations Last Night.”
When 2020 began, Acevedo had decided to put a lot of energy into performing live, and Deto began attending more shows and helping Acevedo with merch. After shows came to a halt, the two remained “in constant contact throughout the pandemic,” Acevedo said. “The productivity was up on both sides.”
The two worked together last summer, with Deto adding a spoken piece to Sketch’s collaboration with Trip Jacker. Then, for the single “Something Incendiary,” Deto reconstructed a beat and mixed and engineered the final product. The two decided it was time to make their collaboration official.
“With ‘Something Incendiary’ he said we should call it The 50x50s because we are literally splitting the work down the middle,” said Acevedo. “We made the video. I filmed it, he edited it, and it kept going on, including the graphic design.” The two then began compiling a Spotify playlist that gets updated every Sunday night as another way to express their love of music and support others. More new music, of course, was on the horizon for 2021. The two decided to first release a single with an A- and B‑side.
Red Eye/Kolsch cover art
“The beat for ‘Red Eye’ is brand new,” said Acevedo. “It was over ten years old and Deto remade it entirely, and the lyrics are fresh. ‘Kölsch’ has a couple of brand new beats” and Deto added vocals to it as well.
Thought he had become more adept at working collaboratively on new music during the pandemic, the idea for the video involving others added a new challenge for Acevedo.
“I tried to do the video in one week and it took three and a half weeks,” he said.” I had to keep extending it to get the scheduling right.” Those he asked to be in it that said yes were then visited by Acevedo for a quick filming, making sure to stay safe.
“I hit up people privately, people I really wanted in the video. I was unsure if people would be receptive, especially with COVID. I questioned if this was a bad idea, but I thought it was important for people to see joy.”
The list of joyful and willing participants included each of the duo’s children and yes, even a couple of pets got in on the action. Acevedo was pleased with the results. “Everyone loosened up and did their thing,” he said. “I even taught some of them my choreography,” including Deto himself, Acevedo’s father “Pops” Acevedo, and artists Murderous Chanteuse, Chriss B Amazing, and Frederic Anthony and Cody Freedom of The Shady Street All Stars.
DJ Mo Niklz shot his own part, “but I gave him instructions,” said Acevedo. Other artists who took part included Arc5 (who is also featured on both tracks), Darien Cunning, Old Self, and in the interest of full disclosure, this reporter, who danced one snowy evening on her own back patio while Acevedo filmed from a covered and distanced location.
Acevedo even got Sam Carlson — who mastered the tracks at Sans Serif Recording — to take part. “He wiggled about,” said Acevedo with a laugh. “It’s people dancing and having fun and being silly. I thought it was reflective of what I was singing in the song.”
Another participant in the video, CT-based producer Mandy Moorehol, was part of another major collaboration Acevedo took part in during the past year. The two worked on two projects in 2020 — Hella Kafkaesque Vol. 1, released in August, and Hella Kafkaesque Vol. 2, released digitally in November and then released together as a deluxe package in December — but only met in person for the first time during the filming of the “Red Eye” video.
The two originally met through Instagram. Moorehol contacted Acevedo in the summer of 2020 asking if he could send him a beat to work with. Acevedo said yes, adding his own rap to the spots in the beat that were left open, “but when I sent it back he never got it,” said Acevedo. “A week later I’m on my way to the store and I get a text of another beat, so I started rhyming at the start of the beat and stopped at the end, then went home to record it. And that ended up being the first track, called ‘Dead Recon.’ He loved it, was totally into it, and he asked where the other one was because he never got it. I had thought he didn’t like it, so I resent it. Then he sent another with an open space, and I recorded it. This all happened in like a three-hour time period. I didn’t have a release planned and he had been putting something out the 20th of every month, and the following Tuesday was the 20th, so we put it out.”
Acevedo worked on the graphic design for the record as well as the video. “For the cover,” Acevedo said he told Moorehol to “send me an image and I’ll manipulate it. All his singles/albums covers have animals on them, and this one was a fox. I sent it back 10 minutes later. For the video, I had no idea what to do, but I had a ton of phone apps and space in my son’s room. I said, ‘I’m gonna go downstairs and shoot a video,’ which ended up being a single shot video.”
Acevedo has been pleased with what he has been able to create in the realm of performance on film, even though he still aches to get back to live shows.
“I like the creativity of video,” he said. “I miss performing a lot. I’m ready to do more whenever that’s possible.”
Until then, he has many plans for future projects with The 50x50s, most of which he is keeping close to the chest. “I don’t want to say a lot,” he added, but he hopes that people get the same joy from watching the video that he got creating it.
“I’m very happy about it,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
“Red Eye/Kölsch” by The 50x50s is available now via Bandcamp and across all streaming services.
