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Behind the Lens: An Interview with the Director of DAP Doc ‘The Undergraduate’

Nigerian-born, Ivy League Law student won the chance to record at Abbey Road studios with Mark Ronson. This is the story behind his journey.

Dolapo Akinkugbe was first introduced to a piano at the age of four. By the time he graduated high school in London, the Nigerian born musician—who goes by DAP—had already received a bevy of accolades for his commitment to a technically sound and classically trained style of playing. At the end of last year, the Brown University Ivy-Leaguer was given the opportunity (thanks to Converse Rubber Tracks) to record in the what’s often regarded as most famous recording space in the world: Abbey Road. The cherry on top? The guest producer on hand to help and guide him would be Mark Ronson. A matter of weeks before taking the Law School Administration Test, DAP spoke to his parents via Skype about the opportunity to record in the studio that produced “Here Comes the Sun” and “Come Together,” consequentially creating the most imitated album cover in the history of music, The Beatles’ Abbey Road. The collegiate producer wasn’t experiencing the urban plight often stereotyped as the only rite of passage to hip-hop credibility. DAP was juggling his passion for music with his instinct to make his parents proud. After all, they were the ones who introduced him to music to begin with.

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When London-raised, 29-year-old filmmaker Lotfy Nathan (whose debut feature-length documentary 12 O’Clock Boys is a must-see) first met with DAP at his off-campus housing in Providence, RI, he was immediately brought back to his college days in Baltimore, MD. During those years, he was documenting the mayhem of the city’s street-riding dirt bike crew in neighborhoods entrenched in poverty and crime. While the story of DAP is the polar opposite of his last film, Nathan felt comfortable breaking the ice. He had a matter of days this time around, not years, to connect with DAP and understand his own personal struggle. The story, he admits, may be one of “champagne problems,” but it holds value because it’s relatable: all young people, regardless of their education or upbringing, have to carve their own path and weigh the pros and cons of their future pursuits.

We met with Nathan over coffee in Brooklyn to discuss his process documenting DAP’s journey to Abbey Road Studios in London, his stylistic choice to use recreation in The Undergraduate, and the importance of establishing context in DAP’s upbringing to heighten the stakes of his existential crisis about his future. It turns out, it’s OK if the viewer is still unsure what the future holds for DAP, because the director doesn’t know either.

Noisey: Prior to working on this documentary, had you ever heard of DAP before?Lotfy Nathan: No, that’s what’s cool. It’s a sort of blind date. I was shown DAP’s work and I thought it was great. It was pretty natural evolution from there. The project was just so open for interpretation and the whole thing was very collaborative.

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From a directorial standpoint, when you first approached The Undergraduate, how did you want to juggle all of these moving parts? You’ve got a Nigerian artist studying at an Ivy League school in America who has really strict parents and is preparing for the LSAT. Was it overwhelming?
It was at first, but that’s the fun with a short documentary. You can take a little slice of that and be very decisive about where you want to point at. There is this backstory that contributes to the equation, you don’t want to over-tell things because you don’t really need to.

DAP’s story is unique, most people think of a stereotypical successful rapper and assume that they’re from an under privileged background and they grew up struggling to survive. But the tension here was that this person actually is thoroughly educated and his parents want him to be a lawyer, meanwhile he really just wants to rap. Was it hard to portray that tension without making the viewer roll his or her eyes at the “struggle” of someone who’s actually in a really great position? I mean, it is a pretty universal situation…
That is a really good point. It’s a totally different can of worms. It isn’t life or death conflict. It’s “champagne problems.” But, there is an existential conversation that he’s having there. There’s obviously the inner conflict of deciding which path to take and what to do at a certain point in your life. You have to guide it. It’s an interesting thing to work with. It’s not what you would imagine, the concept of “coming from urban plight.” I think that’s pretty interesting too and it makes it more unique, but it’s relatable for a lot of people too.

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Some things I liked that you did: you actually showed baby pictures, older archival footage of him playing piano in high school, was that important in establishing his background?
It’s not always important. But in this case, it was warranted. His conflict is about his where he is supposed to go based on his pedigree. We wanted to get into that a little bit and I always like seeing that stuff. This piece was about his legacy as well, what he’s beholden to from his childhood.

Let’s talk about DAP’s relationship with his parents. You were watching him go through these ponderings about him choosing a future in law or music, but his parents played a big factor. How were you trying to represent their relationship?
It’s tricky because his parents are actually really supportive. They have great minds, if anything they seem to teach their kids to be ambitious and to have as many resources at their disposal as possible. It wasn’t remotely like there was any clear protagonist-antagonist situation, but I do think that parents, at that age, either explicitly or overtly are trying to push you towards the more practical decision. You have to prove to them that you can figure out the less practical choice and make it work.

Absolutely. DAP is well educated, multi-talented, and independent, but you can see the look in his face where he is still very concerned with his parents’ opinion on his decisions. It seemed as if he was almost seeking his father’s approval. He’s a grown man, but his father is still telling him, “Oh, you can go to Abbey Road, but make sure your studies come first!” What was your impression of that?
He’s still pretty young and seems to have a genuine respect for the way his parents see things. I think if anything that was a nice wholesome quality. If they were my parents, I would listen to them too.

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When you went into Abbey Road Studios, was there a militant approach to his creative side? There’s this scholastic school of thought that’s built into his framework that really is against the grain of how most hip-hop has been created…
I could see his academic sensibility and that pragmatic approach in his process. The way he handles his music, the arrangements, even the self-analysis, contrary to the approach that you may see in punk music. A lot of other musicians you may not see doing the math as much.

So tell me about your experience inside Abbey Road Studios…
I had always been really amazed by the place; it has such a presence in that recording room. You can feel it. It was surprisingly discrete and low key. It’s like a little haphazard playpen for musicians, where everything is high quality and preserved. You had this whole spectrum of instrumentation and perfect coverage, this mastermind engineer Ken Scott who recorded with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, he had worked with so many major people.

So you’re in this historical studio that has this almost palpable energy to it, what was it like watching DAP go in there with Mark Ronson?
Mark Ronson seemed to really diffuse anything that would’ve made DAP overwhelmed. He’s so down to earth and easygoing; they were both just having fun. DAP is very driven with his work and he knows an opportunity when he has one. They were able to really get into it.

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DAP is in there solo and Ronson has no problem stepping in on the bass. Then there are all these studio musicians including a drummer and a horn section. Did DAP take the lead and direct as this sort-of technically trained musician or was it a more collaborative process?
They were definitely working together. It didn’t seem imposing, but Ronson seemed to be editing DAP’s abilities, like he was picking certain ingredients. DAP has such a varied discipline, so he was using a selection of those things to hit the mark the way that Ronson is known for.

Well that’s the great thing about Mark Ronson, he has such a varied background in production from Paul McCartney and Rufus Wainwright to Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Action Bronson…
It was a great pairing. Especially because DAP is quite the producer himself.

I noticed he made a point to say that he considers himself a producer first and a rapper second. Is that a point of pride?
Absolutely. I could see that Mark Ronson really enjoyed his technical background. I think he called him a “prodigious piano player.” The way you integrated Ronson in was interesting too. Ronson admits that his first album wasn’t too hot commercially, but that you can never truly predict what the future holds for your dreams. Does that parallel to where DAP is in his life?
Absolutely. I hope that’s what comes across. Every artist has to decide their route and whether they’re going to go off the deep end with it. I can relate to that too. Mark was talking about this uncertain moment in time in his life and I think that’s really emboldening for a young artist.

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Especially when Ronson says his first album didn’t do well, and the past few years he’s exploded exponentially…
But you have to endure what seems like an indefinite period of uncertainty…

Well you shot 12 O’Clock Boys for five years, you didn’t know it would end up in film festivals, on Showtime or in The New York Times. I was in a cubicle making shit money and I decided to take the plunge and make a career out of doing this music writing stuff.
Anyone can relate to that. I figured like you said, there was no necessarily high stakes conflict; I found that that was the conflict to talk about and orbit this whole thing around.

Let’s talk about the flashback recreation.
It felt like a really pivotal moment for him, it was a generalized moment of his childhood upbringing where this tangential musical influence came in. It was where he got into hip-hop and different music. His sensibilities started branching out and that’s partially because of where his parents sent him off to school. It felt warranted to show a bit what’s been instilled from his upbringing and this guided path of where his work is supposed to go. It was about the atmosphere of the academics in his childhood and it was fun to try to paint that. This turning point was the embarking of his career.

What did DAP think about that?
He really liked it. He was there that day; the kid was an acting student at the school where we filmed it in Providence. New England has a feel that’s sort of reminiscent of England.

We have a very open ending here where DAP is playing the piano and the future seems unclear. What do you think the future is for him?
I don’t know. That was one of the beauties of this collaboration. We were allowed to be true to the open-ended nature of it. I don’t think an audience like Noisey’s needs a fake buttoned-up ending. I really have no idea where he’ll go with it, but music seems to be unavoidable for him. Who knows? There’s a huge spectrum between the two.

Watch the rest of the films from this project here.

Derek Scancarelli studied documentary filmmaking in New York. Nerd-out with him on Twitter.