Making of Buzz Aldrin's Rocket Experience w/ Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli

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Buzz Aldrin

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FOD Team

Director

Ryan Perez

Actor

Snoop Dogg

Cinematographer

christiansprenger

Additional Credits >

The video opens with Buzz Aldrin in a recording booth with Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli manning the equipment.

Buzz Aldrin (rapping): All you need is the rocket experience.

Snoop Dogg: Ooooohhhhh.

Talib Kweli: Now that’s what I’m talking about.

Snoop Dogg: That’s hot right there, man.

Talib Kweli: Buzz Aldrin’s got his bars up.

The words – The Making of Buzz Aldrin’s Rocket Experience – appear.

Talib Kweli: You see he made up a dance?

Snoop Dogg: He did, didn’t he? All you need is the rocket experience. That was gangsta.

The shot cuts to Buzz Aldrin.

Buzz Aldrin: I have only two passions. Space exploration and hip-hop.

The shot cuts to Talib Kweli.

Talib Kweli: People in the rap game, we’ve known about Buzz for years. The group Blackstar, people think we named it after Marcus Garvey and the whole Blackstar line. No, it’s named after Buzz. Dr. Rendezvous, cause you know because he had those orbital rendezvous techniques he developed at MIT.

Soulja Boy: The person who had the biggest inspiration on my, on everything I do as far as music and production and just everything has to be Buzz Aldrin. The best that ever did it.

The shot cuts to Quincy Jones.

Quincy Jones: I saw the first moonwalk. We saw the guys get off the spaceship and the gravity, lack of gravity and everything else. And all of them was cool, but the one Buzz, my man Buzz, the brother had a great groove going on. You know, he had this great groove going on. He had this little step, this little step going on. He was cool.

The shot cuts to Talib Kweli.

Talib Kweli: The song, Whitey on the Moon, Gil Scott Heron what you thought he was talking about LBJ and Nixon? No, he was talking about Buzz Aldrin.

The shot cuts to a still of Gil Scott Heron and a clip is played from Whitey on the Moon.

Gil Scott Heron: I can’t pay no doctor bills, but whitey’s on the moon.

The shot cuts to Buzz Aldrin.

Buzz Aldrin: Gil and I are cool now. I explained to him that we came in peace for all mankind and he backed off.

The shot cuts to Talib Kweli.

Talib Kweli: People think of hip-hop, they think of beefs. We have east coast/west coast beefs. Down south/up top beefs. But it doesn’t compare to beef between earth walkers and moon walkers, which I think is a way more dangerous beef.

The shot cuts to Buzz Aldrin.

Buzz Aldrin: I don’t have any beef with the earth walkers.

The shot cuts to Snoop Dogg, Buzz Aldrin, and Talib Kweli sitting together.

Snoop Dogg: We was posted up at my pad, playing a little video game, Fight Night 4, and Buzz leaned over and was like, “Yo, Snoop. I’m thinking about doing this record to commemorate my fortieth year anniversary of walking on the moon.”

Buzz Aldrin: Say, you know, Snoop, you gotta do a little more work on your left jab there too.

Snoop Dogg: Not gonna do that.

Talib Kweli: I was shocked when Buzz hit me on Twitter and was like, Yo, I’m working on this album, but he wanted to get more of this underground feel, so he had to bring me in. I had to do my thing on the record.

Buzz Aldrin: Well, it sure is fun Twittering with you.

Talib Kweli: Oh yeah, you know, I’m the Twitter King you know.

The shot cuts back to Buzz Aldrin in the recording booth with Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli manning the equipment.

Buzz Aldrin (rapping): I’ll tell a story bout my time on the moon now. The sky was black even though the sun shined down. Moon walking’s such a trip. It’s so fine when…

Buzz Aldrin and backup singers: …you’re walking in the lunar dust.

The shot cuts to Talib Kweli.

Talib Kweli: I really admire the way Buzz takes chances. Like how he challenged the NASA Space Program and even the track itself. Is there a word for something you can’t explain in words? Ineffable. I think that would be the word, ineffable. That track in ineffable.

The shot cuts to Buzz Aldrin in the recording booth.

Buzz Aldrin (rapping): Imagine a place above the sky. Riding orbits in ninety minutes time. All you need is to come with me. I’ll be your guide.

Backup Singers: To go flying into outer space.

Buzz Aldrin (rapping): I am the spaceman.

Backup Singers: See this world as a beautiful place.

The shot cuts to Buzz Aldrin and Talib Kweli in the recording booth.

Talib Kweli: So, Buzz, I’m curious. What you think about this autotune trend in music nowadays?

Buzz Aldrin: Well, listen, that’s no good. It’s all played out. I don’t want to have anything to do with that.

Talib Kweli: So no autotunes on this song.

Buzz Aldrin: No, no, no.

Talib Kweli: Ok.

The shot cuts to Snoop Dogg, Buzz Aldrin, and Talib Kweli sitting together listening to the track.

Song playback: All you need is the rocket experience.

Snoop Dogg: Yo, man, I think we need to tone the beat down just a little cause we gonna lose the message. It’s too hard.

The shot cuts to Snoop Dogg and Buzz Aldrin in the recording booth.

Snoop Dogg (softly): All you need is the rocket experience. (To Buzz Aldrin) So when you say it, visualize yourself performing it. Put a little more attitude in it.

Buzz Aldrin (with more attitude): Going up in a rocket.

Snoop Dogg: Exactly. Like if you was flying in space.

Buzz Aldrin (with more attitude): All you need is the rocket experience. All you need is the rocket experience.

Buzz Aldrin and Snoop Dogg: All you need is the rocket experience. All you need is the rocket experience. All you need is the rocket experience.

Snoop Dogg: There it is. Tape that!

Buzz Aldrin: I think I gotcha. I think I gotcha.

Snoop Dogg: Tape it. That’s it, that’s it. Tape that.

The shot cuts to Talib Kweli reading out of the book Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon, by Buzz Aldrin and Ken Abraham.

Talib Kweli: You all gotta read this book, man. Buzz Aldrin is so gansta.

The shot cuts to Snoop Dogg.

Snoop Dog: Now Buzz, you need a remix of the song and I got you. I’m gonna do it G mix style. (rapping) From the ground to the fly to the high to the sky to the clouds to the stars, to mars. Till the stars can see, it’s me, the D O G, to the moon consume, let the base go boom, we can fly in a rocket, got the smoke in a socket, you could put it in your pocket, unlock it, I’m a rocket. It’s Snoop, he hooked up with Buzz, that’s my cuz. I’m gonna show you what it is. Now you know what it was. That’s the G mix. Fly with the space.