On what made you pick up a camera:

Xavier Williams, 26, South Side: I was at the crib, bored, and came across one of those movie makers [on the computer]. I started playing around with it. I had my little sister record me rapping other people’s songs to see if I could put a music video together. I [also] used to make videos of cartoons dancing to rap songs. I did one of SpongeBob SquarePants and “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” by Soulja Boy. I was 18 or 19 years old. It got 100,000 views on Myspace. It just kept going from there.

Kevin Wright, 23, Garfield Park: I never thought I’d be shooting videos. That wasn’t my intention at first. I started off drawing in grade schools, and won some awards. I got lazy with drawing and photos are like drawing, but doesn’t take as much time. One day, I was at Leaders 1354 and I had my camera. This man asked what I had my camera for. I told him I liked to take pictures. He invited me to his office, a small magazine company called Elevator Mag. They shot [music] videos. I saw what was going on and started doing my own thing, too. I was a junior in high school.

Azeez Alaka, 23, Hyde Park/Bronzeville: I used to do comedy videos around 2010 before the YouTube wave was big. I was in high school. One of the videos went viral. Then I decided to jump into parodies, and I started paying this dude to shoot my videos. I was a college student so I couldn’t keep paying him. I learned how to shoot videos. When I started shooting my own videos, my cousin’s friend started asking me to shoot his video. I kept telling him, “No.” Then, he said he has $50, and I shot his first music video in 2012. [In 2014], I started my [current] YouTube channel.