Shooting For the No.1 Spot With Director X

There’s been absolutely no getting away from ‘Hotline Bling’ – the Drake spurred meme mania has taken over every timeline and it’s all thanks to none other than that Director X video.

Call it the ‘X factor’, but Director X has that midas touch and it’s no wonder since he’s been at this game a pretty long time, working his way up the ranks as Little X one of the hottest directors in Hip-Hop since the late 90’s. Canadian born and raised, Julien Lutz nailed an internship in NYC under the watchful eye of Hype William’s and became his go to storyboard guy. It was Def Jam and Bad Boy, who gave him his first break directing and soon enough he became known in the industry as a regular ‘Def Jam director’, shooting for EPMD, Redman, Onyx, DMX, Sisqo, Kanye, Rihanna and the list goes on.

Now Drake has that No.1 spot on the Billboard 100 in his sights, so there couldn’t have been anyone else better equipped than Director X to give Drake the perfect showcase for those dance moves and set the internet on fire. Having already directed 3 videos for Drake including ‘Started From the Bottom’, X and Drake certainly knew what they needed to set off with this video.

So if you needed reminding or maybe some schooling on the hot No.1 resume of Director X formally known as Little X, here are 5 videos he directed that went on to become HUGE no.1 records on the Billboard 100.

Nelly – Hot In Herre

Nelly was unstoppable and in 29 June 2002 he scored his first No.1 Billboard 100 record with ‘Hot In Herre’. Produced by The Neptunes, who were at peak production power, Nelly had come off of his multi-platinum debut ‘Country Grammar’ was out to take no prisoners with his follow-up ‘Nellyville’. This was a huge record on radio and in the clubs – and trust us when we tell you things got hot everywhere.

Usher – Yeah ft Lil Jon & Ludacris

Usher has had 9 singles topping the Billboard 100 but on 28 February 2004 he scored the biggest record of 2004, when ‘Yeah’ ran on for 12 consecutive weeks at the top of the charts and became the no.1 record of the year.

Mario – Let Me Love You

Kicking off the new year at no.1 on 1st January 2005, Mario’s ‘Let Me Love You’ went on to become probably the biggest Valentines Day anthem ever, and spent 9 weeks in a row at No.1 on the Billboard’s Hot 100. Written by Ne-Yo the track became the start of a bigger career for Ne-Yo whereas for Mario this remained his biggest and only no.1 record of his career.

Sean Paul – Temperature

Sean Paul hit the No.1 Spot on the Billboard 100 on April Fools day of 2006 but it was no hoax, he made his ascent up the charts knocking Ne-Yo off the top spot with his first No.1 record ‘So Sick’. ‘Temperature’ went on to spend 17 weeks in the Top 10 of the Billboard 100 only to be outdone later by Nelly Furtado’s ‘Promiscuous’ also directed by Little X.

Nelly Furtado – Promiscuous

A fellow Canadian of Portuguese descent, Nelly Furtado started out as a folksy pop artist but that all changed by the time she dropped her third studio album ‘Loose’. Timbaland came on board and produced most of the cuts giving her career a major reboot and subsequently landing her her first no.1 record on the Billboard 100 on 8 July 2006. The club video featured X’s signature tonal colour lighting transitions and included cameo’s from Timbaland and Justin Timberlake.