Blake Campbell
Blake Campbell (born December 17, 1991), known by his YouTube username blakescampbell, is a YouTube Partner and internet personality from Pensacola, Florida. Campbell began making videos in July 2009 and has since gained over 12,000 subscribers. He is currently a sophomore at Furman University.
| Blake Campbell | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Dec 17, 1991 Pensacola |
| Occupation | Youtube Partner |
Blake Campbell was born in Pensacola, Florida. He started his YouTube channel on July 4,2009. His first videos were satire rap videos, and it is these videos that established the style he is known for. Early collaborations with Matt Sorenson, also known as mattdehavensorenson, produceded the video “Murder Video by Mr. Bubble”. The video is a short film in which two protagonists are terrorized by a seemingly anthropomorphic Mr. Bubble toy. This video garnered Campbell attention from the Mr. Bubble soap company, which sent him Mr. Bubble merchandise due to the video’s resulting popularity.
In January 2010, Campbell began collaborating with longtime friend and independent rapper Max Castillo. The pair have created Campbell’s two most popular videos,”Auto-Tune Rehab” and “Midnight Snack Rap”. “Auto-Tune Addict” is a satire video about the current music industry’s prevalent use of the Auto-Tune pitch correction effect in which Campbell plays a frequent “user” of the “drug” that is Auto-Tune. “Midnight Snack Rap” garnered more than 130,000 views in less than one week. His most popular video, however, is “Autotune Rehab,” which garnered over 140,000 views in 3 days. It was featured on the front page of youtube for 2 days and for a day was the most watched video in multiple countries. Often, Campbell’s music videos use original music by YouTube celebrity Ronald Jenkees. Campbell has received commercial rights to use Jenkees’ music as instrumentals in his videos, and therefore does not violate any copyright infringements.
Campbell’s YouTube media has attracted the attention of other figures in American Pop Culture. Duke University basketball player Nolan Smith contacted Campbell as a result of his video fame and the two maintain a friendship. He has also been contacted by fitness guru John Basedow.
In July 2010, the Pensacola news paper, the Pensacola News Journal, ran a featured piece on Campbell and Castillo’s shared success on YouTube. According to the article, the pair plan to continue creating videos well into their college years, as their schools, Georgia Institute of Technology (Castillo) and Furman University (Campbell) are less than 150 miles apart.
Video Style
Campbell’s videos consist of mostly comedic rap videos in a similar vane to well-known comedy group The Lonely Island, although he does have a few original short films and vlog videos. Before “Midnight Snack Rap”, Campbell’s most viewed video was ironically one that was drastically different from his normal fare; a basketball trickshot compilation that garnered over 90,000 views.
Due to the success they have brought him, Campbell plans to remain making comedic raps, original skits, and vlogs. While his music videos tend to be outlandish or “over the top”, his vlogs deal with real world issues, such as LeBron James’s choice to play for the Miami Heat.
A joke commonly recurring throughout his videos with Max Castillo involves his pet, a black cocker spaniel. Somewhere in his lyrics, often times completely unrelated to the theme of the song, Max kills Blake’s dog. The joke is not only that Castillo has little or no real reason to kill the dog, but also that the dog keeps returning in future videos only to be killed again.
External links & references
- blakescampbell.com – website