Killah Priest doesn't do small talk. He does octopuses, UAPs, simulation theory, and the kind of conversation that makes you pull over and write something down.

Priest is a Brooklyn-born lyricist, Wu-Tang affiliate, and founding member of Sunz of Man. His 1998 debut Heavy Mental is considered a classic. J. Cole called his song NASA Case "like a book" and listened to it nine times. Flea walked through his garden alone just to tell him the album was great.

We've known each other since the pandemic — I directed his music video for Heavier Mental and somehow ended up naming his album Rocket to Nebula at a bar one night. This conversation is the reunion.

We talk about Wu-Tang's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, what it felt like to be in the room when Cream was being made, why retirement isn't a word that belongs in a creative's vocabulary, and what a mimic octopus can teach you about making art for thirty years.

Oh, and we're already in space. He'll explain.

BJ McDonnell has operated camera on over 100 films. You've seen his work. You just didn't know his name.

From running around Pensacola with a camcorder and a VCR in a backpack, to steady cam on Top Gun: Maverick with an F-18 ten feet over his head, BJ built one of the most respected careers in Hollywood the old fashioned way. He paid his dues, surrounded himself with the right people, and never stopped trying to direct.

We talk about what it actually takes to make something when the budget runs out, why the best film school is a film set, writing a Slayer prison riot video with no pitch and no plan, and what it feels like to watch AI change the industry you've given 25 years to.

BJ is a DGA director, ICG Local 600 camera operator, and one of the most honest conversations we've had about what keeping the stoke alive actually looks like.

In the Static is a podcast about what keeps creatives going when they're closest to quitting.

Episode Description:

Hannah Smith is a podcast producer and co-creator of The Knife on Exactly Right Media. Before that she was a producer and host on The Opportunist. She has spent her career inside the making process, building shows, finding stories, and figuring it out in real time.

In this conversation we talk about what it actually looks like to develop a show from nothing, how you know when something is working, and what keeps you moving when the picture hasn't come through yet.

This is In The Static. A podcast about the making process — before the finished thing exists.