'I listen to a lot of hip-hop and a lot of jazz. 'That was probably the first song I'd heard by Baauer,' he said. I realized not getting that much publicity was better 'cause I have a dedicated cult following, and I would lose their respect.' Frank wasn't a big Baauer fan before making his video, and says he still isn't. I already had a fan base before, as Filthy Frank, and were concerned that I was gonna hit the mainstream big time.
At first I was upset, like, what's going on, I made this. I'm very happy it got that kind of exposure. It's a shame, that was probably the video I put the least amount of work into. We thought, well, we could turn this in to something good.' Frank started making videos as a hobby when he was 12, and sounds almost disappointed that this particular video, which he says took about three days to inspire more successful imitators, was the one to leave such a mark. One of my friends was just playing the song on the speakers and I asked what, and it just happened to be 'Harlem Shake.' As soon as the drop of the song came, we just started going crazy. Reached by phone, he explained the genesis of his 'Harlem Shake' video, the one that started it all. Whose idea was the 'Harlem Shake' video in the first place?įilthy Frank, a 19-year-old currently studying communications in New York who has about 13,000 subscribers on YouTube.
