The Premiere

In its epic premiere, the highly anticipated debut of the music video for 5 Star Nerve (The Brachial Plexus Song) helped push the MS1s to victory at Skit Night. It has spread across YouTube and Facebook like wildfire. The night of the premiere was also the most frustrating night of my entire life. Ronald W. Milam Jr. and I literally almost threw my Mac across the room, and indeed my mouse was broken at some point in a fit of rage. In a red carpet event that was supposed to be as life changing as puberty (come on, we're rappers now!), technology reared its ugly head and bit us both in the ass. Our night was only saved by a bottle of Yellow Tail Cabernet Sauvignon and by removing the Outro from the DVD for the evening. We were an hour late to the Carrboro Arts Center, as I ran across Rosemary Street, clutching my 20'' Mac desktop in my arms.

Before you go any further, here is the YouTube link to this instant classic. Behold the pure genius of Whitelightning and Ro-licious. Behold longevity and immortality. Behold 5 Star Nerve:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXTyUTMv0Oo

Ronnie and I had successfully finished the video a day ahead of time: Intro, Outro, sound effects and everything. All we had left were the Credits, and a possible showing of the Outtakes. Eight o'clock in the evening was the start time, and by around 5:30 we were good to go. We scrapped the Outtakes (to be shown at a later date - people have to have some reason to buy the DVD, right?), and at six pm we burned our first copy. I ran downstairs to play it on the big screen in crystal clear High Definition (only the best for our MS1s), while Ronnie got ready to burn another copy and upload it to the net. The plan was to burn 2 copies, one for back up, and then publish it to YouTube as our diaper. With two hours to go before showtime, it wouldn't even be close to a photo finish.

And then all hell broke loose.

Six minutes into an 8 minute and 42 second video, the audio went completely awry. The sound from a clip 20 seconds down the road started playing completely out of sync. Nothing made sense. Ronnie heard me yell, "Oh SHIT!" from downstairs, and he knew our night had just begun. Immediately, we went into troubleshoot mode (Ronald was much calmer than I was - he had to answer all my phone calls because I was too irate to participate in rational conversation). The problem was that the video played perfectly in iMovie. Only when it was formatted did the thing start going screwy. Perplexed and vexed, we proceeded to call Apple, call our class presidents, push back the time we would be getting there, have someone (thanks, Krissy!) buy a cable at an Apple Store for a backup (hence the reason I was running across Rosemary with a large desktop in hand). For three hours we tried to fix this epic and utter disaster. Fortunately my mouse was the only causality of the whole operation.

Eventually we had to completely scrap the Outro. The students, as you saw in the video, would learn the brachial plexus, but they never found out their grades. Whitelightning never got a 37%, and the video went straight to credits. Disheartened and severely frustrated, we finally got a version that worked and hopped in the car. We sped down 54 and through campus, parked illegally, and zipped across oncoming traffic to deliver the DVD. We were welcomed with cheers and flowers, and the 5 Star Nerve (the shortened edition) was played to an enthusiastic medical crowd. Of course, the left speakers weren't working, so a couple opening lines got dropped (why not? Technology had already completely failed us). Ronnie and I left immediately after, too disappointed to stay for the rest of the night's scheduled events.

The MS1s won, but we were on edge. It was a high intensity night, and our relief became vegan White Russians at Kelly's house. We didn't get to see any other skits (even the medUNCedoos’ version of Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z - of which I rewrote the lyrics to Med School State of Mind). It seemed like the 6 hours of video, cut down to 9 minutes, with hundreds of man hours (literally, not kidding, hundreds), and dozens of classes missed, had all been a waste. It was the most anticlimactic moment I've ever experienced.

Fortunately, all has been rectified. I spent an hour on the phone with Apple yesterday (the file was corrupted, we had to completely retool the part, save it in a Quicktime movie, then reinsert it), and, as of midnight last night, the movie was debut. Stephen Vance gets credited with the first ever viewing, and I'm sure his autograph will be worth something someday. Or perhaps he'll make it to Oprah. As of right now, the video has over 300 hits, and that's just within the first few hours. Our goal is a million; this video will take over the world. Clearly it deserves 5 stars...

Yo Gotti, we will be expecting a call from you soon (hopefully not to sue us, just to recognize our genius).

Now that's a 5 Star Rap about some 5 Star Nerves!