Today we’d like to introduce you to Lonnie Stark
Lonnie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started out making random videos on Youtube back in 2011 with my brother Tre and my cousin Mall. At the same time I was dancing and performing for my school talent shows and pep rallies, so my videos transitioned from cringy delirious randomness to cringy dance videos. Over time, I got better at dancing and making videos and I started seeing some viewership after a few of my dance videos got featured on a dance community channel that was called ItsMRich. They featured all the most popular dancers so that drove me to get even better because I felt like I didn’t meet the standard quite yet. I practiced and eventually graduated and went off to college for like 6 months… Then I dropped out and came back after failing miserably. I met Jay in middle school and in high school we formed a dance crew and did the performances I mentioned before. When I came back from college in 2014, Jay was still around so we reconnected and started making dance videos together. He’s still dancing and still a main part of our group DMG today.
As time went on, Jay and I made countless dance videos until we made a sharp left turn to music. We formed a 3 man group with another good friend of mine, Markel, and went on to do a few songs and videos before we decided to return to solo work. I didn’t really go solo, Tre was already making music so we became OGCARTI. The real day ones know about OGCARTI so I don’t have to get to deep into that and plus, everything is still out there somewhere if that story interests anyone out there. Once the OGCARTI era was over, I began to question if this was the route I wanted to take for myself. I felt like no matter what I did, nothing worked and I needed to get back to my roots. Which was making videos. I realized that even though I was making cringe videos back in the day, at the time, they were great ideas and I was actually ahead of my time. I have to give a shoutout to RDCWorld also because we grew up in the same area and I’ve followed their journey since they started. We had a very similar view on cinema and making videos back then. I feel the same today. One day we’ll sit down and share stories about those times.
Today we’re back to making videos on Youtube. Specifically, skits, parodies, and fan films. All of which are available on our channel, DMGDaily. I feel we all have found something we love doing. We love seeing the final product and being able to laugh together at something we created that is supposed to be funny. I definitely feel like we are only just beginning as DMG and we are on track to create some incredible things that will touch the hearts of someone out there. We’re working on a huge adaptation right now and we have quite a few hood parodies coming out in the next year. As far as an origin story, I feel like each one of us has our own unique origin but we all have the same goal.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road has for sure been a bit rough for us all. All of us have had some type of struggle or hardship to overcome. Personally, I have epilepsy. It limits a lot of what I can do but I don’t let that stop me. Some of us have lost close members of our families. Those losses drive us though because we know they would want to see us keep going. Doing this later in life also requires balance so we don’t experience burnout from the struggles of life and trying to keep up with a group content schedule. We all have lives. Some of us have families. Some have kids. Well I’m the only one with kids at this point… Regardless, life gets in the way a lot. Then you have the industry stuff. We do this completely independently so we are building a lot of relationships from scratch. The growth is slow but will increase as we put out better content but it is very difficult to get others to take you seriously without the numbers. We are also trying to do better financially because a lot of what we are planning on creating is quite expensive—specifically, wardrobe. we want to make our mark by having the most accurate costumes to compensate for a slight lack in quality as compared to the top creators. We could still be considered a top group because we focus on the small details of the story and have the best looking costumes for the niche we are creating in. We will eventually get to a point where we have everything we need but until then, we work together to split up costs and make sure we have everything we need.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We make comedic skits, hood parodies, and fan films. We have yet to release our first hood parody adaptation but we are very proud of what we are able to create with just a camera and a script. We are very proud of our skits and we write all of our own scripts and do all production work in house.
What sets DMG apart from other groups is the amount of overall talent. Everyone in the group has multiple talents allowing us to create the highest quality content possible with the resources we have.
What makes you happy?
Honestly, I get joy from seeing others happy, really through whatever medium is at play. I love to see people’s dreams come true. I think that is because I want so badly to see my own dreams come true that it gives me a sense of secondhand accomplishment to be a part of making it happen for someone.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrstarkitsperfect/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DMGDaily
