“Sincerely, Sha Hef” is a documentary portrait that chronicles the 48 hours before the New York rapper turned himself in to authorities ahead of serving a five-year sentence at Lewisburg Federal Prison. While incarcerated, Hef recorded the film’s contemplative narration, reflecting on the moments and choices that lead him here. 

BRICK is proud to present an exclusive conversation with director AboveGround and executive producer Stevie Skytel, in which the two shed some light on the process of capturing such a personal account of a pivotal few days in Hef’s life.

BRICK: I know you’ve been working together on various projects over the years, but how did the two of you first meet?

Stevie Skytel: We met in the summer of 2016, at Boom Bap Festival in the UK.

AboveGround: Yeah, I remember that. I had just gotten back from my first ever trip to New York, and I was still buzzing from it. I was like, “alright, how the fuck do I get back out there and shoot more?” Stevie was managing DA$H, and I remember being backstage at Boom Bap, shooting with them.

SS: And a few days after, I was like, “yo, let me come by your crib and look at the footage that you got of the show,” and that’s where we started building a rapport with each other. He had this little creative dungeon in his flat, and we were kicking it and getting to know each other. Sometimes you find chemistry with certain people, and it feels like they're bringing something out of you creatively. I'm like, “oh, we got to make some shit happen.”

AG: I came to New York two weeks later, because by coincidence I had a job there shooting a music video. I extended that trip a little and we shot more footage with DA$H that ended up being the “Grade A” video, which helped to establish the aesthetic of AboveGround at the time. That trip was the first time I met Hef, too.

B: What was the genesis of the AboveGround imprint, and where did that name come from?

AG: It started in 2015, and at that time I was very involved in the graffiti scene. I really enjoyed it. I was already taking photos, but because of the nature of the activities I was shooting and the access that I had, I couldn't use my real name. I needed something else. I chose AboveGround because at that time everything was super, super through the keyhole. Very, very inner circle. From there, I feel like it's literally taken ten years for  the skill level to match the taste level. And now we can produce these films and make it look the way I always wanted it to.

B: I know over those last ten years, you two have worked together a lot. You've also worked with Hef a lot. But where did this idea of shooting a documentary first come from?

AG: I can tell you exactly when. I had a FaceTime with Stevie on some random shit. It was September, 2022. While we were on the call I saw Hef in the background and I hadn't seen him in ages. I was like, “oh, what's happening?” Then Stevie briefed me on what he was actually dealing with... Stevie and I are always talking about doing something, no matter the situation. But this time, I was like, “yeah, we have really got to fucking do it. Because if not now, there might not be another opportunity.” We are not the most patient people. I feel like me and Stevie work best when it's now or never. I remember the pre-production basically started on that call.

SS: Yeah, I was hanging out with Hef when he was going through his case because we came up together and were very close friends, but I hadn't seen him for a while. When we were first getting involved with music, there would be like 50, 60 of us mobbin;, running through New York, Jersey, Connecticut. But then as life goes on, the grass gets cut and the snakes get shown, and you trim the fat. So Hef was really just in a place where he was more or less by himself with his girl and hanging out with our buddy Nox, who is also his manager.

When I heard he caught a case, I caught up with him and was telling him to come get involved with me a little bit more, because I had a bunch of momentum going on with LAAMS and stuff like that. I'm just like, “yo, I got these ideas, let's go ahead and just do a project. I'm going to get you a bunch of beats, you just record.” He spent a lot of time in the studio. I also wanted to figure out a way to shed a new light on him, where it wasn't just hung around the idea of Hef as the super-villain. I wanted people to see a whole different side of him, in a more artistic way. I knew we had to figure out how to get AG involved because I just love him, and his talent and his art. 

AG: As soon as we hung up that FaceTime call, I was trying to see if we could get any bread to buy film because I was like, “this thing cannot be shot on digi.” It just wouldn’t translate the luminance of his character, it wasn’t going to work. My gut was telling me that this might be something really special and we needed to do it—not for the visibility, not for the material side of things, but for the craft. Another obstacle was that I can’t travel to America for legal reasons, so immediately I called my friend Jojo and and I was like, “look, a bit of a mad one, I need a DOP with his own equipment, and I need someone that doesn't bend under pressure and can just dance with the camera.If he needs anything he can call me, but I'm not going to be there.” I was going to deliver the treatment and then let him loose. That’s how Jojo introduced me to Derek Matar, who is an incredible DOP working out of NYC.

SS: I don't even know why I called AG. I knew he wasn’t allowed to travel. I just knew we had to do some shit.

AG: Stevie was doing the groundwork with the production, making all that happen. It was fucking insane. All the locations, transport, finding the money to pay for the film… Meanwhile, me and Derek spoke for six hours on that first day we got introduced, and the next day we started putting the treatment together. Everything happened very fast. The production was rolling, the shot list was delivered, it was a go.

SS: I was actually in South Korea when we talked about putting this thing together. I didn't know if we had enough time to do it because Hef was supposed to turn himself in; but his lawyer ended up getting him another two weeks, and it gave us a window to get this done. I came home to jump right into it. Derek had the camera, I paid for the film and got the van, then we broke down the shot list and identified locations that would work.

AG: The production team was bare minimum. It was just Derek and two people helping with the lighting.

SS: I was just the conductor of the train. I'm like, “come on, we riding.” That was it. It was intense. I came back from Korea and we shot this film in 48 hours. I didn't even go home. I slept in my studio. I had all the equipment too, and Derek's like, “please bring the equipment inside, don't leave in the van. If somebody steals that stuff, it's my life.” We slept for four hours after the first day’s shoot, then got back up and did it all over again. It was a lot. 

B: Obviously it’s a huge step of trust in your DOP to execute it without you being on site, but how much were you in contact through the process of that shoot?

AG: Barely, really. All the communication was done prior to shooting.

B: That must have required a ton of preparation.

AboveGround: Yeah. I wanted to be more involved, but I don't think they had any time between their movements to be in contact with me, but I felt like the treatment, and our communication, was pretty much spot on before they even touched the camera. Derek was very calm throughout.  Some DOPs tend to panic and be perfectionists, but Derek is really good at just fitting into any situation. It's almost like he can be invisible. Even Hef, who usually keeps himself to himself, was comfortable and it didn't feel like, “oh, I'm on camera. I have to perform.” All of the rushes that we received, it felt like they knew each other, there was a trust there.

B: Did either of you feel any additional pressure knowing that this deadline was looming for Hef and he was spending that very valuable time in the service of getting this film made?

SS: He's a rider, man. I know that he appreciated every single moment. He knows we got to complete the mission. I think that's all we thought about: completing the mission. I don't think we felt any pressure. It's like sports; you play until the clock runs out. We were just trying to put up all the points we could, and we felt good at the end. Even in the last moments after we got all our shots, we still had a couple hundred feet of film left and we were like, “yo, we're going to burn this up.” So we just started riding around Harlem getting extra shots.

AG: I feel like with his remaining free time, Hef wanted to create as many different assets as he could, so that while he's locked up, there'd still be a drive to drop shit while he's away. And I wanted to drop this film within the first year. I was really pushing for it, but the team was like, “look, we need to wait longer. We need to build the appetite for it a little bit. He's in there for five years, so if we drop this right away, what are we going to do for the next four years?” So now we're kind of at the midpoint, it’s three years he's been in.

B: Did you have any specific references in mind as you were pulling together shot lists and treatments? Were there other films that you were looking towards or taking inspiration from?

AG: Honestly, I tried my best to stay away from everything because I understood that as soon as I start looking at a reference, or start copying some sort of an outline, it might just throw everyone off. We listened to a lot of music though. A lot of Twin Peaks-like music, quite melancholic and ambient. 

B: You've obviously both known Hef for a long time, but was there anything that you learned about him through this process of working together, or anything that surprised you about how your relationships developed?

SS: It was more of an affirmation than anything, of him being that rider, being reliable, being relentless; “we going to get it done.” Hef’s always had that attitude, and I appreciate him for that. It’s a testament to his character and being a stand-up individual. Just having him in my corner as long as I have, and being a good dude and a good friend. It's rare that you meet good people like that. 

B: That's great. When people are going to watch this film, what do you hope that they take away from it? 

SS: I just thought it was so gangster, so tough for Hef to be vulnerable enough to share these emotions. When he talks about feeling this sense of relief when he was caught; not having to run anymore and not having to look over your shoulder; I thought it was really stand-up for him to be brave enough to express himself like that. I admire that.

AG: Obviously I'm aware that the subject matter is quite sensitive, and some people might say it’s a glorification of crime; but I just knew, even before we started this project, that there's other characters somewhere in New York, or around the world, that get put in certain situations and don't really have much choice. They get put in those situations too young. So I feel like as long as someone, even a single person, can resonate with this story and maybe reflect on their own decisions in life, that's my mission done. I can’t really predict what the reaction will be from people—that's not my job. My job is to create the work and get it out of my system, and make something that Hef can be proud of. Something that his friends can be proud of. That's it.