Benjamin Vanderford is a 22 year old banker who in his spare time enjoys video art, as well as music; Ben is also known as The Great White Hype on the label Record Label Records. He is an experimental freestyle rap artist, who records all his rapping in one take. Fluorescent Grey, aka Robert Martin, does the music for The GWH. His CDs include Scatology, 20 Rap House Greats, and Another Black World. Ben's new album, Non-Parody is in progress, and is based off of effects on him, such as rapping in a tub full of ice.
Ben also has programmed his own video game based off of the Quake engine, Good vs. Bad 2, a highly conceptual and experimental video game that includes such characters as entire football teams, a boy and his blob, and more. Ben also has created some striking Nintendo tribute music; he was trained on the piano for over a decade. Ben's favorite song, after all Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan songs, is My Clean Sanchez
Since Ben doesn't own a television, he missed last night's Colin Quinn coverage of his shoulder hair. Somehow, I don't think he missed anything! Ben recently dropped out of the race for District 5 Supervisor of San Francisco, but during his campaign he fought for values like government transparency and aid for the homeless.
He is also responsible for the Rick James Hoax
Additional comments can be viewed at our interview with The San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/08/08/MNGBN83I3U1.DTL
Additional photos:
Director Robert Martin & Co-producer/camera Laurie Kirchner
Fake Iraq set
Fake Iraq set 2
Fake blood recipe
Another video by Benjamin Vanderford & Fluorescent Grey
Additional Art and Music
Photo & Site Credit: Brian English