"With music videos you can find yourself, you can find your style and what works best for you," explains Little X. "Commercials are not so free and forgiving and they shouldn't be; they have a definite agenda which is to sell, not to entertain. Music videos will sell product if they entertain, it's completely different."

Not so different that Little X, represented by Mars Media, New York, couldn't draw from commercials when directing the video for Redman's "I'll Bee Dat." The video moves between scenes based on various spoofs of video cliches (Redman performing with several Rubenesque dancers) and spot premises, including a sugar intensive segment for Redman cereal. In the cereal segment, the rapper is dressed in overalls and a knit cap, with this same cartoonish version of him appearing on the fictitious cereal box featured in the video. Little X says this image was key in helping him come up with the concept.

"The image of Redman in the overalls was a graphic used on his album and when I saw it I thought it was perfect," says Little X. "I said, let's do Redman cereal. It was like he had a mascot or a logo of himself which is what I thought should be done with the character - it made sense having a little Tony the Tiger Redman."

Little X says the only spoof Redman wasn't willing to do was a play on a Paul Mitchell hair products ad. A native of Toronto, Little X, 24 has directed music videos for DMX, Redman, Choclair, Faith Evans, the Roots, Chris Rock and Deborah Cox. X directed a 30-second spot featuring D'Angelo and the mayor of Atlanta for Black Entertainment Television (BET) in late January, as well as a commercial for Footlocker. At 20, he became an intern at Big Dog Films, also a division of HSI. There he worked for hip hop director Hype Williams, using his comic art skills to draw storyboards and sketches, but also taking notes. Little X describes Williams as a friend and mentor. "I learned pretty much everything from him, from the lenses I shoot with to the way I transfer film," says Little X. "Before him I knew nothing about film, I just knew how to draw."

Given the constraints and demands of music video production, his learning process was accelerated. "With music videos you are trying to do so much in a day, we try and cram in three minutes worth of information in two days of shooting at the most," he says. "The audience is very sophisticated and is definitely paying attention, because they want to. They look at a video, study it and understand what it should be about and look like, questioning everything, even wardrobe. The artist is our product and I can't compromise them."

Directing more commercials appeals to Little X, who says working within the firmer guidelines and attention to the wishes of clients is not a problem for him; he adds that he is a filmmaker who can offer agencies a specialized take on marketing.

"I am my demographic," says Little X. "I am a young, 24-year-old black male listening to hip hop and living in Brooklyn. I know what I like and I know the generation I come from. I'm not some old guy in an agency saying 'we really got to tap into this urban thing.' That's what I offer and I believe I have talent."