We had the good fortune of connecting with “Chicago Chris” Buck and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi “Chicago Chris” Buck, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I’ve loved tv shows, movies and music videos from an early age. In the 5th grade I went to a party and my friends mom created teams and gave each team a bag with miscellaneous props, we had to use the props and create a scene. I basically directed the scene and we by a unanimous decision WON. That year i was in a commercial as talent, I was the kid that did’nt get adopted. I had an amazing time and at that point I guess I caught the bug, but never knew I would end up a 30+ year set vet.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What sets me apart from everyone else is first and foremost. I am Chicago Chris, lol but seriously I am Chicago Chris. I am a 30 year set vet and I’ve worked on numerous classic music videos. That’s how I came into the “world”. I am from Chicago, Ill. South Side, Hyde Park. While in High School, Kenwood, My mother and I moved to Atlanta, Ga., College Park to be exact. From there I went to Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for Mass Communication. I then went to the Art Institute of Atlanta for Video Productions while attending the Art Institute, I ended up, through a mutual friend – Jason Geter met Raekwon and Power of the Wu-Tang Clan. They were in need of a videographer while they were recording the next album – American Cream Team and while working on that project we created a brotherhood. I then went to LA and Shaolin – Staten Island and shot with the crew. As far as working on “real” sets, a good friend that was in college with my younger brother in Chicago at Columbia College, Sunni Ali had been working on Hype Williams jobs with R. Kelly in Chicago. He was an A.D – Assistant Director and he was gonna be coming to Atlanta to shoot a Music Video for R. Kelly and Keith Murray “Home Alone” he then got me on that job as a PA as well as another associate of mine, my Brotha, DeVaughn Hughson. That was our first big break into the world. Our first day set we did 27 hours straight turn around was nine hours and did like another 19 hours on day 2 and I was hooked. I didn’t want to do anything else from my 1st job on a “real” set. I did a great job so therefore I continued getting calls for classic music videos productions, which then made me just say why am I going to school if I’m already working in the world. So I dropped out of school and continued working in Film, this is back in the day when we ONLY shot on film, 35 MM. From there I lived in PA nation learning the world and a year and a half later I became a 2nd 2nd A.D. and then 2nd A.D. as a 2nd AD I was really dope with Talent and with our models, so a good friend of mine Dee Dee Wales, who is Key Hair asked me if I wanted to work in Casting because she knew I was great with models and she said if I was, she can get me on a job as Casting Director for a Music Video. Dee Dee had a friend of hers that wanted she wanted to get into a Casting so she wanted us to meet. We met, synergy was there and that’s how our Casting Agency, Black Lipstick Casting Agency was formed. Our 1st video was Mystical’s “Shake it Fast”. From there I continued working on music videos as a 2nd AD or 2nd 2nd AD. I was casting for about 85% of the major Music videos for 4-5 years. We casted the 1st three ludacris music videos, We did Lil Johns. “Welcome to Atlanta”, “Welcome to Atlanta” remix, I’ve casted country mega group Sugarland. I’ve done Whitney Houston and Ron Isley, Darius Rucker,Trillville, Youngbloodz Russ, 2 Chainz, Outkast, T.I, TLC, 112, Petey Pablo, Monica, Toosii, Llyod and the list goes on.By the way Black Lipstick will be 25 years old this August 2025. Then…. Life happened. I had to take a hiatus. I became a single father of four children (Jade, Asia, Kaya, Malik and Shai & Nia would come later in life) from the ages of 1 to 6. I had to choose, do I wanna continue climbing the ladder in the film world (and I was at pinnacle in my career, at that time) or do I wanna focus and raise my children? I chose my children (so I took a hiatus at that point Worked at a few odd places. I worked at Catepillar, Delta, I went to culinary school – Le Cordon Bleu and graduated with a 3.8 GPA. Fast forward, I’ve been producing a lot of independent Music Video, independent films and TV shows. Then Covid hit, a good friend of mine with the production company, Kinship Works, Tracey Fobbs, called me said he had a show he wants to do. He told me about the show basically think in Living Color meets Saturday Night Live, so it was a live variety show, live skits with musical acts. We ended up shooting a season of “The Going Live Show” 6 episodes and we went live on YouTube. We had acts on the show my daughter AsiaNae. We had a Big Boy of Outkast, Goodie Mob, The Yin Yang Twins, Danii Roundtree, Hero the Band, and we had the SOS Band for finale. We also had a lot of the local comics out of the Atlanta area and Philly, I was the show runner, one of the EP‘s, Casting Director and I brought in majority of the musical acts. fast-forward to present. I’ve still been Producing, Executive Producing, Casting and AD’ing. Once the strikes hit, WGA/ SAG all the work basically ceased and Atlanta has not picked up since then. So that was an open the door for me to be more into creating and developing shows, so one of my business partners also, one of my longtime friends Adiclere Evans had a company – Media Savvy, which is a Production Company, creating and developing as well, so she brought me in, partnered up with her and now we’re creating and developing shows, also during this time I was blessed out of nowhere, never knew I could have this, but I ended up getting a distribution deal and I have over 140+ streaming network channels. All the major usual suspects and yeah that’s me and it’s not a nutshell.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well for me if I had a friend visiting the area, I would probably be the boring Homie at this point, lol. BUT back in the days, WHEWWWWW!!!!! These days if I’m not on set, creating, developing, In Chicago. I’m with the family and 3 and a 4th grandkid on the way. I do sneak out to House Music events when I can. But we (the family) do a lot of events together. Again, I AM from Chicago and I AM a love of House Music and I AM a Hip Hop Head as well, but I’m DEFINITLY a HOUSE HEAD, so I would take them to a House Club and we would get our dance on. As far as food, I’m a lover of all types of tasty delights, we could go and try any of the flavorful spots here in Atlanta.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My God, My Ancestors, The Universe, The Queens, My Family, my film family, 1st generation Atlanta Black Filmakers, Spike Lee, Stan Lathan, Hype Williams, Christopher Robinson, Sunni Ali. So many to name, I apologize to those I didn’t name

Instagram: @chicagochris55. @blacklipstickcasting

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutAtlanta is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.