Special effects, creativity, beautiful women and high-energy performances. These are all hallmarks of Little X videos. As one of the most sought-after directors in the music industry, he’s directed videos for artists such as Sean Paul, R. Kelly, Shaggy, Ludacris, Kanye West, Beenie Man, Rihanna, Kelis, Kevin Lyttle, Wayne Wonder, Wyclef, Alicia Keys, and the list goes on and on and on…

X is a second generation Trini, a self-described Trini born in Toronto, and is the first in our Caribbean Roots segments which focuses on artists and personalities with Caribbean heritage. CiRCUIT caught up with him a few weeks before his first ever trip to Barbados for the Bridgetown Film Festival, where he shared his award-winning techniques with young artists and music video producers who are now poising themselves for international exposure. 

How can Caribbean artists produce slammin’ videos without huge budgets?
>>Go out and shoot a slammin’ video. Not everything has to be about the big  money. You gotta get creative. What counts is that you have to have a visual for your music, y’know? Find a way to make your equipment work for you. Utilise the Internet, utilise what’s around you and get your hustle on.

For cynical CiRCUIT readers with the raised eyebrow thinking ‘uh-huh X, easy for you to say, you’ve got the high profile artists with label backing’, we asked X whether he has, or would he ever consider shooting a video for an unsigned Caribbean artist on a shoestring budget.
>>I’m about the fun of it. If all the elements came together, then like, yeah sure, let’s go do it. Sean Paul and all those videos that we did were never big budget videos. To begin with, Gimme The Light, we did for free just because my whole team was West Indian, and we wanted to do something for our music and for our culture. 

According to X, it hasn’t been difficult keeping connected to the Caribbean
>>Toronto is a West Indian colony. If you didn’t know, now you know. Anyplace I go in Toronto, I know I can find a West Indian restaurant, I know I can find a soca fete , I know I can find a reggae jam. In Toronto, the party doesn’t get going until the reggae music gets going on, know what I’m saying?

What’s your favourite X video?
>>I love my Sean Paul videos, man. Just the right combos, the right things, people received them really well.

Do you think soca can make it internationally?
I hope so. They need some education in Caribbean music. They don’t quite get it. We go a little too fast for them. The waist movement is a little too rapid for them. Every now and then a soca tune will break out, but that’s not the norm.

What’s your favourite Junk Food?
>>The little twisted corn chips. I eat ‘em all the time. I’m addicted to ‘em.

Which Caribbean artist would you most like to work with?
>>I wanna do a soca thing with Machel [Montano] and tear down the house.

X is very impassioned about his Caribbean heritage. He acknowledges that in the same way Italians consider themselves to be Italian even if they weren’t actually born in Italy, it’s the same thing for West Indians.
>>I know West Indians born in the West Indies don’t consider the kids born abroad as from whatever island they’re from. But that’s what they are. They accept it, that’s what the rest of the public considers them. That’s what they consider themselves. That’s what they connect to because that’s what they are and it’s important for people to connect to their roots.

Anything else that X would want CiRCUIT readers to know about him?
>>Yeah, I’m a ninja assassin!