Inspiration

Chop Suey (no kings MTV remix) is a loose homage to the 1984 hit Love and Pride by the band King, fronted by Paul King. The video visually references the original’s glam earnestness while deliberately excluding the band — hence “No Kings.” Paul King is replaced by a rotating cast of visually similar Asian women, each styled in a green 1980s suit and red combat boots. The music, written and produced by DJ Turn, belongs to the Hi-Chop House genre — a high-tempo, chopped vocal style with no sonic resemblance to the original. The remix is the short version remixed for this video. DJ Turn's Chop Suey EP has five different remixes, and this remix is a shortened version of one of the mixes on the EP.

What it does

The video mimics the visual language of 1980s MTV: melodramatic posing, hard cuts, and surreal overlays. Set in an abandoned junk-littered British wilderness, it stages a rhythmic hallucination where each beat triggers a visual rupture. The repetition of the cast creates a hypnotic tension — familiar yet estranged. The result is nostalgic, ironic, and culturally unanchored.

How we built it

We used OpenArt AI and Runway AI to generate modular scenes with stylized transitions and runtime-safe pacing. A custom-trained model was developed to replicate the overgrown, junk-filled UK wilderness, but OpenArt’s descriptive fidelity ultimately outperformed it. The project was built without storyboards — visuals emerged organically, guided by rhythm and emotional logic. “Bad” prompt results were sometimes retained for their unexpected creative value.

Challenges we ran into

Training the model was a major lift, but integration proved less effective than expected. Prompt overloads and runtime budget breaches required splitting scenes into modular clips. Platform-specific failures and silent crashes pushed us toward diagnostic pivots and credit-efficient workflows.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We recreated the emotional tone of the original video while injecting surreal, culturally adapted elements. The parody lands without flattening the source — it’s nostalgic, strange, and visually coherent. Originally, I was unsure that I could deliver similar scenes as the original video from the 1980s.

What we learned

Training a model is only half the battle — descriptive prompting often yields better results. Remixing legacy media requires emotional precision and technical restraint. And building without storyboards can lead to richer, more unexpected creative outcomes.

What's next for Chop Suey (no kings MTV remix)

We’re thinking of developing a series of DJ Turn mix videos under the Chop Suey banner, with different themes and other possible video parodies. DJ Turn will continue producing and releasing Hi-Chop House tracks. In fact, there are at least 5 new tracks in the works.

Built With

  • openart
  • runway
Share this project:

Updates