We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Abdul Malik Abbott a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Abdul Malik, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
My resilience comes from my heart and soul, which are my parents. My father, who passed away several years ago was a self made man, a filmmaker, photographer and teacher. My mother also was a strong, hard-working woman and a tough, but fair mother figure to me and my siblings, as well as to countless other young men as she was at a high administration position at her job at the Boys Choir of Harlem. They all loved her there. My resilience also stems from the fact that I was striving to achieve goals that were out of the norm when it came to people in my generation and in my neighborhood. Growing up in Harlem, New York, becoming an artist or a filmmaker was not the norm. Going to school, and trying to stay away from the street life was what most teens were experiencing. Even though I had 3 siblings in the household, I was pretty much a loner as I was heavy into drawing, painting, comic books and reading books about movies and the process of making movies.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m a Director, first and foremost, but I like to call myself a filmmaker as well and a producer (of music). I’m focused on my career as an artist, but as an artist, there are lots of tentacles I’ve put out there. I’ve achieved a certain level of success, but will never rest on what I’ve done in the past. I’m very proud of my achievements and hope to inspire other up and coming, young artists as well. I donate my skills and some of my free time to the organization Kids in the Spotlight, which is a nonprofit organization that teaches inner city youths how to be filmmakers and actors. Some are from the foster system. My brand is Blue Music Productions. It’s a company I and my music partner Daryl Serrano formed a briefly lived Soul band called Blue many years ago. When the band broke up, I kept the production name and co-produced many of the music videos I directed as well as using the name when I was editing music video projects from home in which I’ve edited over 300 music videos for new and established recording artists. As Hip=Hop has now hit it’s 50 year anniversary, I’m am proud to say I am the only director who directed Jay-Z and the late rapper Notorious B.I.G in two music videos: “Dead Presidents” and “Ain’t No…”
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three most important skills that were mostly impactful on my journey into the film/TV business is knowing the art of Directing, the talent as a Editor and mastering the art of set-etiquette. While Directing and Editing and very specific skills, anyone who wants to work on set, needs to know and master set-etiquette because as a freelancer, you are going to want people to re-hire you again and again. If you don’t know how to behave on set, you won’t be asked back. (usually)
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
My parents believed in me. Yeah, that might sound a little corny, but it takes a lot of stamina and luck to make it in the film world. I went to film school, not a trade school, so they had to believe that I might make something out of myself and I was unique enough to stand out of the crowd.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.abdulmalikabbott.com, www.bossmusicny.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/djabbyab, www.instagram.com/bluemusicproductions
Image Credits
Eliot Aether, Mark Laurant, Yoshua Khan, Francine Rambousek, Abdul Malik Abbott
