You may not be familiar with director Aristotle Torres, or his company By Any Means, but your favorite rappers and singers surely are. With a resume that boasts visual treatments like Nas’s “The Don” and “Bye Baby,” Ludacris’s “Jinglin'” and Fabolous‘s “You Be Killin Em,” Torres is easily one of the most sought after videographers in the game today. In a recent interview with Jack Threads, the young director detailed how he helped garner J. Cole’s presence in Hip-Hop, some of his notable works, and why “The Don” was his most special video to date.
“At the time in college when I started By Any Means, we were managing artist and we started off with an artist by the name of J. Cole,” said Torres, who met the North Carolina MC while they attended St. John’s University. From there By Any Means built a buzz for J. Cole’s The Come Up, which gained By Any Means and Torres industry notice.
“Cole got signed to Jay-Z and he was becoming prominent, and other artist saw that we did this work, and reached out. Jim Jones, the Clipse, The Roots, Busta Rhymes, they were like you know ‘Whatever you did for J. Cole, we want you to do the same thing for us.'”
Check the full interview below to hear Torres’ talk more about his process for managing talent from behind the lens and Nas’s “The Don.”
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