After a decade in music, Waxploitation has launched it's own film company, Waxploitation Films, which will be dedicated exclusively to producing youth culture lifestyle oriented DVD titles primarily within the extreme sports and hip hop markets.
"This is the biggest move we'd made since we originally formed Waxploitation", says the company President, Jeff Antebi. "We've waited on the sidelines and assisted other companies with their film and television productions, but after meeting with a dozen distributors this quarter, we felt the time to step in was now. We already have built-in brand recognition in those two realms and an established marketing system in place. The first films we are doing take advantage of ten years of momentum".
Waxploitation is best known as a management company handling the careers of hip hop artists and producers including Tha Alkaholiks, King Britt, E-Swift, KutMasta Kurt, Tash, Madlib, Peanut Butter Wolf and Tony Touch, as well as rock and electronic producers such as Chris Vrenna, Josh Wink and Paul Leary. Waxploitation producers have worked with almost every major artist in recent years including U2, Sublime, Xzibit, Bjork, Snoop Dogg, Beastie Boys, Weezer, Busta Rhymes and Linkin Park.
Waxploitation's sister company SAVREN represents top action sports athletes including Caleb Wyatt, Ryan Capes, Tyler King and Jeremy Carter. Additionally, Waxploitation's video game marketing and music production company KABUKI DIGITAL has worked with most of the top video game companies including EA, THQ, Infogrames, Eidos and LucasArts on a variety of projects including WWF and the highly anticipated Enter The Matrix.
The Waxploitation Films division, headed up by David Leslie, formerly of Vivendi Interactive, will focus primarily on the two lifestyle niches of hip hop and action sports. "It's an area we have the most experience in," says Leslie. "What makes this a dynamic effort is our access to the underground, endemic audience. If it's part of the next generation of entertainment, we are basically already there.”
Already in production are titles being co-produced with Carter Gibbs (founder of Grail Films and a legendary figure in action sports), E-Swift (hip hop icon and founder of Tha Alkaholiks and Likwit Crew) as well as with a host of young film makers that Waxploitation is intent upon developing as part of its long term plan. The first titles are expected to ship in the fourth quarter of 2003.