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Videographer and editor DJ Darren “DWoods” Cole first had dreams of being behind a turntable. Now he’s the personal video editor for rapper Rick Ross.
It was 2009, and Milwaukee video director and DJ Darren "DWoods" Cole had been out of college less than a year when he got the call that would change his life.
"I'm sitting in my apartment doing my daily routine, and some guy called me and asked if I could edit a Rick Ross video," Cole recalled.
That guy was Spliff, A&R and video director for rapper Rick Ross' new label, Maybach Music. Spliff, who happened to be in Milwaukee visiting family, was looking for a new video editor to cut up hours of behind-the-scenes footage for Ross.
Referred to Cole by local DJ and producer, DJ Speed, Spliff held a meeting with the young video editor and gave him a hard drive full of footage to see what he could do. Cole seized the opportunity, editing more than 60 videos for Spliff and Ross in the first year alone.
Two years later, Cole, a 26-year-old Kansas City native, is Ross' personal video editor, flying back and forth from Miami to work on projects for the rap star.
Although he has a thriving career as a videographer and editor, Cole initially had dreams of being behind a turntable, not a camera.
"I got my first set of turntables when I was a freshman in high school," Cole said. "I wanted to be a DJ since I was in grade school."
Coincidentally, it was a video project that helped him buy those turntables. As a freshman at boarding school Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam, Cole and a friend borrowed money from a parent to produce a promotional DVD for the football team. The two then sold the video for a profit. The project was Cole's first foray as a video producer.
"We packaged it with T-shirts and sold it back to the students. It worked pretty well," Cole said of his moneymaking venture. "The two, for me, have always gone hand in hand, because all the DJ equipment I bought with video money."
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in digital media in 2008, Cole edited videos for local organizations such as Walnut Way and rappers including Alias. A DJ gig a few nights a week helped support his video work.
"When I graduated, I would get up and just sit and edit all day, and at night I would go out and DJ," Cole said. "I was living off my deejaying money at the time." That was before getting the call from Spliff.
Since connecting with Ross, Cole still works as a DJ when he can, but he has focused most of his time on building working relationships with industry heavyweights such as rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, who hired Cole to develop a behind-the-scenes promo for his "DiddyDirtyMoney" tour in 2011.
Cole has edited videos for Milwaukee rappers Prophetic and KHB and hopes to work with more local artists in between his obligations to Ross. He's producing videos for two Milwaukee natives living in New York City, rappers Signif and Adebisi.
"I get to work with people I look up to in music and business," Cole said. "Anytime you get to work with people on that level, you learn a lot."
Some of Darren Coles videos include those of Bronx native, D-Mo
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