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Q&A

Neighbors: Wyeth Collins

Catching up with the precocious Charlotte-based director/DP/editor extraordinaire. Plus, how to get your name printed in the first issue of SE mag (due out later this month), and a rundown of new music from the past couple weeks.

Ryan Cocca

• 9 min read
Neighbors: Wyeth Collins
Getting to know Wyeth Collins, shown here on set with MAVI.

I don't remember the first Wyeth Collins music video I saw, or the first time I paused a music video halfway through to search the credits for who was responsible, and found his name. That's less a reflection of my memory than it is of his Chinese-infrastructure-project-like prolificacy; over the past couple years, he's cranked out so much stuff that it can be hard to keep track.

Charlotte is having a mind-boggling moment in hip-hop, and for a baseline primer on what that means, you could do a lot worse than simply surveying the Wyeth catalog of the past couple years. Whether as solo director, or in DP, editing, or other supporting roles as part of the production trio Play (with leroy and 1stKind), his visuals have accompanied the music of Reuben Vincent, Gauxstman, Dad Badi & Tommyxboi, leroy & Droptop Ducee', Cyanca, Lamaj, Fetty P Franklin, Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon, and plenty more that (see first paragraph) I'm probably leaving out. Most notable of all may be his ongoing relationship with the city's critical darling, MAVI, who's now called on Wyeth and Play for three of his last four music videos, as his star only continues to ascend.

While sheer aesthetic quality may be the most immediate impression, these aren't the only beautiful music videos around; advancements in software and hardware alike have made it increasingly possible to give videos a theatrical sheen that was previously the sole domain of big-budget affairs. What really stands out in Wyeth's work is a refusal, it seems, to mail anything in, regularly inserting imaginative or semi-dizzying editing flourishes into sequences that others would've been content to leave in the comfortable realm of rap motif. In the recent MAVI and Kenny Mason video, "Typewriter" — shot in a two-hour sprint while the former was in Atlanta with the Alfredo tour last year — an otherwise straightforward video is lent an air of surrealism through a trick of layered-in staircases and balconies that materialize out of the darkness, accentuating the song's orchestral, haunting sound.

If it all seems to have sprung somewhat out of nowhere, that's because it sort of has — Collins only recently graduated from UNC-Charlotte, and only started shooting video in 2022. "I graduated straight into being a freelancer and I had doubts of what it would look like," he writes. "Because at that point, I felt like I still hadn't found where I wanted to take things." Just a few years later, it wouldn't be a stretch to describe him as one of the most trusted hands in NC to call upon for a hip-hop video, one whose deft and kinetic touch is as pliant to the needs of collaborators as it is recognizable unto itself. For our first Neighbors Q&A of the year (fka "Inbox Intro"), I shot a few questions over in hopes of having my curiosities answered — including what he's proud of, what's special about the Charlotte hip-hop community, and the future of music videos. Enjoy.

Where is this interview reaching you?

This interview is finding me at home, I just finished a shoot for my friend Drop, and my girlfriend and I are gonna try our hand at making chicken piccata.

What are you proudest of (professionally) from the past few years, and most excited about in the years to come?

I'm proud of almost every project for one reason or another, most projects are such lightning-in-a-bottle situations that you often devote pieces of yourself to make them happen, and it's nice to see those pieces through the art when looking back on them. Professionally, I'm most proud of being able to live comfortably off making art that I enjoy to make, and the independence that's come with it.

I graduated straight into being a freelancer and I had doubts of what it would look like because at that point, I felt like I still hadn't found where I wanted to take things. But now a year out I'm very proud of being in a position where art and work can come to me at their own pace, and learning that my previous work had set the path for where I wanted to go. I'm most excited about building Play with my friends & collaborators leroy and DaRemen. We don't know the exact bounds for what it'll look like, but within a year of working with each other we've been able to make some of my favorite projects, and I'm super excited to see where we can take things and what we can bring to Charlotte and NC.

You regularly mention when posting your work that it came together on a crazy timeline, like the MAVI "Typewriter" video shot in a two-hour window in Atlanta or the Selah video that you edited in the 24 hours before it posted. What’s your process or techniques that allow you to pump things out quickly without sacrificing quality?

When working on projects, you interact with unknowns so often that you have to get really good about training your feel for things. For decisions a lot of the time your first instinct is correct, and when working under a strict deadline most decisions are kept to that first instinct, you just have to trust your ability to turn it into what you're looking for. I've also always been a procrastinator.

I saw on IG that 2022 was your first year filming video. Did you have a different career aspiration before that? 

I used to want to be a creative director/lead graphic designer for a professional sports program, but I got a taste of it working as one for App State's football program while in high school, and realized it would've burnt me out quickly if I stuck with it. I wanted to be a travel photographer, sports photographer, marketing exec, couple other things. There were times I thought I was stretching my talents too thin, but thankfully making videos is a position accepting of that.

The Charlotte hip-hop scene is insane right now. What makes it so special, and/or what does it have that nowhere else does?

The Charlotte music scene is so so so fun right now, there hasn't been a year yet since I moved here where at least one artist doesn't make my Spotify top five. What's special about it to me is the art output in relation to the size of the community, and the subsequent reach that comes from it. That relation I think is what makes our scene so special, everyone is familiar with everyone and occupies the same spaces, it's the kind of thing that you usually find looking back on scenes after they've popped.

Even as they’ve declined in relevance from the place they occupied 10-20 years ago, it’s been cool to see a new class of music video directors like yourself emerge and keep the art form fresh. What do you foresee for the culture of music videos going forward?

It means a lot to be considered part of a class of really really talented people, there's so many absurd directors, so really thank you for that. For the future of music videos I hope we see more investment. To me, the past decade has proven that you can make a music video that at least does its job with as little resources as possible, but I think with how quickly our attention can move, it's more important than ever to have a music video that also works a separate piece of art that tells the same story and has as much intention and care as the original piece of music.

Truthfully I believe we're headed in that direction; the only music video we've gotten from Keem's rollout was a short film. To me it's a better investment to create a visual representation of the sonic world than it is to have visuals that pair with the song — there's more for fans to live with and believe in.

Where are people most likely to find you (other than home)?

Currently, people are most likely to find me at the office space I share with leroy & DaRemen, or a coffee shop — freelancer things.

NEIGHBORS (formerly Inbox Intro) is monthly Q&A with NC folks you should know, sponsored by the good folks at Fullsteam. It's good to know your neighbors.

Also This Week On The Tuesday Mixtape:

  • 🗞 The first print edition of SE, Spring/Summer 2026, is almost here — and we want to put your name on the inaugural masthead.
  • 🎧 New music from TiaCorine, sosocamo, Madrique, James Vader, Sacredd919, and many more.
  • 🔗 A brand new roundup of fresh links.

🗞 SE1 Arrives This Month

Kemp Dupri, shot by Hanna Wondmagegn (outtake from Issue 1).

There's much more to say and share in the coming weeks, but for now I'm content to leave it at this: Super Empty, the physical magazine, is a real thing that's happening, this month. Proofs are being run off by the printer in the next few days, shops around the state are already lined up to carry it on their shelves, and the planning for (multiple) launch parties in April has begun.

As excited as I am to let people get the issue individually, the true staying power of SE will be defined, as any magazine is, by its capacity to enlist subscribers who pay to regularly have it delivered to their door. If you've enjoyed the last two years of our work — either in these emails, online, on Instagram, events — I'd love for you to be one of those people. Signing up is simple: pick from two pay-what-you-can style tiers ($50/yr and $100/yr), both of which get you 70+ full-color pages of original photography and longform writing on the culture of NC, mailed out twice a year. Having yet to produce a single one in the real world, I realize we're asking for a bit of a leap of faith, so for this week only there's an added enticement.

Subscribe by this Sunday, and your name will be printed in the masthead of our first issue, immortalized for all time in the annals of state history. (Not to mention, you'll be among the first to get your hands on the issue, too.) If you run into any issues with signup please shoot me an email here or DM on Instagram, happy to assist. Can't wait to roll out more in the days to come, from the official Contributors list (18 deep!) to the front cover, and more. And thanks as always for the support and engagement, without which there would be little point for a community journalism project like this.

Subscribe to SE Print Edition

🎧 New Songs/Albums/Videos/Everything

Given all the above and the many swirling tasks related to physical magazine rollout, not much in the way of music commentary this week, but I still wanted to at least give a rundown of some worthy new things you may have missed:

  • If there's one thing I'm being reminded of over the past week it's the power of a well-produced cypher. Just as the On The Radar "New Rap Class" session is spawning a renewed interest in deserving acts like Reuben Vincent, Chris Patrick, Marco Plus, and more, last month's Two Six Cypher has me more attentive to Fayetteville hip-hop than I've ever been. Two acts from the roster are responsible for new projects I've been spinning the past week: Carolina Cool Slim's The Big Plate Sale and William Prize's Freshly Rapped II.
  • $.Klass Vol. 1. - $.320 by James Vader [EP]
  • big country - sosocamo (Album)
  • The Desire of Luxury Living - Madrique [EP]
  • "The Scythe" by TiaCorine, Denzel Curry, FERG (Video)
  • "eenie meanie" by Joey Zen and maasho (song)
  • "MUFASAAA" by Sacredd919 (song)
  • "Shameless" by Hollywood Nikki (video/song)