Nico Ballesteros, the documentary filmmaker behind the upcoming film Whose Name?, is sharing his perspective on the project’s content. Having compiled over 3,000 hours of footage, Ballesteros said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that he aims to delve deep into the rapper’s life.
“I didn’t make this to tell a story of descent or unraveling,” he said. “I made it to tell a beautiful, deep story of an American figure. We live in such a headline-based society, so I believe this is the body text underneath those headlines. I’m not trying to persuade anyone. I want it to be like a Rorschach test.”
Ballesteros added that he approached the project from a journalistic standpoint. “I was there as a journalist, documenting. It never really broke the fourth wall for me. I had a profound sense of empathy and he was always polite to me—even a kind of mentor, at least creatively.”
When asked about the rapper’s controversial political content, Ballesteros was clear. “I don’t support antisemitism, obviously, or hate speech. He and I don’t share the same views…. We’re human. That’s really where I’m at. He’s a person—he’s a human.”
