The Swell Hip Hop Hoax

Documentary telling the adventurous tale of how two Dundee lads duped the record industry by pretending to be a Californian hip hop duo and nearly concluded up destroying themselves.

Foul-mouthed Californian hip hop duo Silibil northward' Brains were going to be massive. But no-one knew the pair were really amiable Scotsmen, with fake American accents and made upward identities. This documentary tells the audacious tale of how two lads from Dundee duped the tape industry and nearly destroyed themselves.

When their promising Scottish rap act was branded 'the rapping Proclaimers' past a scornful record manufacture, friends Billy Boyd and Gavin Bain reinvented themselves as Los Angeles homeboys. The lie was their gilt ticket to a record deal and a dream celebrity life. With confessions from the rapping imposters, insight from the music industry they duped and animated elements, the film charts the rollercoaster story of this outrageous scam.

A stranger-than-fiction true account of fractured friendship, the pressure of living with lies and the legacy of faking everything in the desperate pursuit of fame.

3 months left to watch

1 hour, 26 minutes

Last on

Clips

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the beginning of the programme in hours and minutes

  • Silibil Due north Brains

    Medicine

  • B Production

    Five of the All-time

  • B Product

    The Movement

  • Frightened Rabbit

    Scottish Winds

  • Automuse

    Arthur'due south Afterhours

  • Silibil N Brains

    Everyday

  • Silibil N Brains

    Let's Get Naked

  • Silibil N Brains

    Tongue Kung-Fu

  • Silibil North Brains

    Your Moms

  • Martin John Henry

    Breathing Space (Instrumental)

  • Silibil North Brains

    Shut Yo Mouth

  • The Magnetic North

    Warbeth

  • Silibil N Brains

    I Play With Myself

  • Silibil Due north Brains

    Your Moms

  • Holiday for Strings

    Particles

    Remix Artist: Automuse.

  • Institute

    You're No Vincent Gallo

  • The Magnetic N

    Bay of Skaill

  • Gavin Bain & Baton Boyd

    The Corking Hip Hop Hoax terminate credits

Director Jeanie Finlay on 'The Smashing Hip Hop Hoax'

Director Jeanie Finlay on 'The Great Hip Hop Hoax'

What is more important, story or grapheme?

I'thousand not sure you lot can have one without the other. All the films I make are portraits to varying extents, The Great Hip Hop Hoax is probably the most story driven moving-picture show I have fabricated but I hope that you go on a journey with the characters and feel differently about them at the terminate of a motion-picture show than y'all did at the beginning. Fifty-fifty in a very narrative heavy motion-picture show, if you lot were to cut out graphic symbol all you would be left with would be plot.

I was really drawn to the small details of the story and the pair's deception that helped bring it to life – the "laminate flooring"!

What made you first want to explore the field of study?

As before long equally I read about the deception Silibil north' Brains pulled off I knew I wanted to make a picture well-nigh their story. I was intrigued with how the prevarication took on a life of its own and ran away from them.

Everybody lies everyday, it's human nature merely what happens when y'all lie about your whole identity to get what you want? I felt haunted by the idea that the boys changed themselves fundamentally, all for the hollow promise of fame.

I kept thinking about my (Scottish) father and the improbability of him ever sacrificing his "Scottishness". I told him almost the story and he found the idea ridiculous.

I wanted to discover how and why they did it and what the lasting consequence on them was… I'thousand also a really rubbish liar, I could never have done what they did.

How long did it take to get the moving picture off the ground?

It took a long fourth dimension – I starting time started filming Gavin almost five years go. It took a while to become both Baton and Gavin both on lath for diverse reasons – I went and made SOUND IT OUT in the interim. It was worth waiting until I was able to tell the story from both men's perspective. The story lies in-between the 2 of them.

What were you lot most surprised to larn in the course of production?

Information technology was fascinating comparison different versions of the same events. Baton and Gavin'due south in some places were crush for beat out and in other places wildly different. I had to plough through the "lies most the lies virtually the lies". Information technology was like unravelling a jumper.

I establish my reaction to some of the archive surprising, knowing the two of them as grown men I was genuinely surprised by some of their behaviour in the guise of Silibil n' Brains back in 2004 – smashing glass on the street in detail.

What accept been the differences in reception to the film in countries it has at present travelled to?

It has gone down brilliantly, specially in Canada. Maybe my Canadian editor Jim Scott has left his mark.

Which documentary has near inspired you?

Too many to mention. To celebrate the release of the film Broadway Cinema in Nottingham where I am based programmed a mini flavor of my favourite films. These included the docs:

American Movie

The Desperation and the Ecstacy of Phil Spector

They are both portraits of a kind, one of a likeable slacker who is just really trying to get his film made. Another of a great artist who is also facing trial for murder. I am both in awe of Spector'south music, charmed by his talent and repulsed past deportment. Such a layered portrait, it'due south a great film.

Favourite Website/web log?

I could lose many hours listening again to my favourite podcast This American Life world wide web.thisamericanlife.org

Person you'd well-nigh like to interview (living or dead?)

I would have loved to come across Jimmy Ellis aka Orion who I'chiliad making my new picture show Orion about. I'm piecing his life together through archive and stories – he was brutally murdered 14 years ago. At the moment I'm ploughing my way through hours of recordings, a voice "from the grave" if you similar. I'd dear to hear from the man himself.

Bobbie Gentry – her mysterious departure from public life after her time in the spotlight has always intrigued me.

When I was about 10 we had to write an essay for schoolhouse entitled "my hero". Almost of the girls in my class wrote well-nigh Lady Diana and her flicky hair. My essay was nigh Kenneth Williams. I was kind of obsessed with him and what I saw as his arch wit. I would accept given annihilation to meet him and ask him questions all day.

Best slice of filmmaking advice you've ever been given?

If you lot want to be a filmmaker, don't just talk about information technology - make films.

Best piece of filmmaking equipment you lot can't live without?

An editor!

The golden dominion is don't ask filmmakers virtually cameras, as they'll never stop and it's very tiresome.  My well stocked Peli cases have a 7d, a c300, lenses, GoPro, mini lights, sound kit, magic arm, window clamp.... I similar knowing I can load up my car at anytime and go filming on my own if I need to.

If coin was no object, what is your dream documentary subject?

I'm interested in telling small and shy stories. I sometimes feel like a shy person in the role of an extrovert, every bit a filmmaker. I've found a way of connecting with an audience – a film can make a very pocket-size and intimate story accessible by thousands, merely without the need for shouting.

I can't really say but it's something deeply uncommercial, small, uncommisionable and would never attract funding in a million years.

Favourite film of all time?

Blackness Narcissus – Powell and Pressburger

Nuns, sexual repression, lipstick and transformation, directed by a maverick duo in mail war Britain. DOP Jack Cardiff brought the Himalayas to life on a sound stage in London using black and white photo backdrops coloured with chalk. The effect is breathtaking.

Most difficult access?

Many of the people you see in The Great Hip Hop Hoax didn't want to take part initially, that'due south the same for Sound Information technology Out as well. Office of my job is to persuade people that being in a film could be a good experience and that I volition treat their contribution with fairness and respect. I actually bask interviewing people who have never been on camera before and might see themselves as unlikely contributors. Who actually wants to hear from someone who wants to be in a film?

Best recent read?

Gillespie and I past Jane Harris – an unreliable narrator takes u.s. through the winding art earth of 1880s Glasgow.

Credits

Director Jeanie Finlay
Producer Jeanie Finlay
Producer Al Morrow

Broadcasts

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TV blog: "Lies about the lies"

TV blog:

"The quest for truth also governed the style the film looks"

How the 'rapping Proclaimers' lived a prevarication

How the 'rapping Proclaimers' lived a lie

Gavin Bain and Baton Boyd pretended to be American rappers and lived a lie for iii years

Animating The Groovy Hip Hop Hoax

Animating The Great Hip Hop Hoax

The animators talk about bringing the characters of Silibil n' Brains to life

Gallery