018: Louis Quatorze (Video Artist)

Louis Quatorze on Innovation City

“This is great music and people need to hear it. That’s the mentality that I like to take.” — Louis Quatorze

Welcome to Innovation City—powered by Venture Cafe—where Tyler Kelley and Michael Johnson, Co-Founders of SLAM! Agency, interview innovators, creators, and disruptors to discover how business is changing in the modern world.

Created and produced by SLAM! Agency in conjunction with Venture Cafe St. Louis and Venture Cafe Miami, Innovation City gives you an inside look at how rapidly business and culture are changing thanks to increasing diversity and inclusion, heightened creativity, and a stronger and better-connected business community.

Today’s guest is Louis Quatorze; video artist, music video director, and arts curator. He produces pro bono music videos for St. Louis’ up-and-coming hip hop stars. Big Louis, Louis the Shooter, Mike Roth; he answers to all these names and he is dedicated to building up the arts and hip hop scene in St. Louis. Find him at LouisQuatorze.org and on YouTube.

They discuss:

• Making Mvstermind’s Mali Moolah viral video
• Louis’ local web series #The314 which covers local art, music and events
• Using his skills to push artists forward
• Working without any particular agenda
• Video as a marketing tool
• Creating a sustainable platform for art in St. Louis
• Winning together
• Listen Local vs listening to the radio
• The accessibility of music and shows in StL
• Where the name Louis Quatorze came from
• Rotting Peach Pictures
• Louis’ Golden Bargain: shooting videos for free in return for freedom of expression
• The Louisiana Purchase
• Going to The University of Tulsa to study Management Information Systems
• Finding the Film Studies Program on the school’s closed circuit TV system
• Starting a filmmaking club for students who didn’t want to major in Film Studies
• Growing up with hip hop; listening to TLC, Tupac, DMX
• St. Louis artists you need to know about:
• Smino (selling out all over the world) on SoundCloud, YouTube
• LA4SS (promising artist from the younger generation) on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram
• J’Demul (rapper with a blues feel) on YouTube, SoundCloud
• St. Louis Hip Hop’s marketing problem
• St. Louis’ blues heritage
• Sharing the wealth in the artistic community
• Being the one-man marketing machine behind his work
• The Rock Paper Podcast – a St. Louis podcast “featuring interviews with local comedians, musicians and interesting people”
• KDHX 88.1 FM in St. Louis
• Strategies for growth on YouTube
• Doing the groundwork to build your network
• Apollo (a local music showcase that Louis puts on every September)
• The Knuckles, Rockwell Knuckles and Aloha Mischo, on SoundCloud
• ShowcaseSTL, put on by the Riverfront Times
• Tonina Saputo, upright bassist and electric guitarist; touring for her new album Black Angel, and her regular performances at The Grandel
• Ravyn Lenae on Twitter, on YouTube, on SoundCloud