On the 2nd leg of my morning commute—the Union Station to Farragut North trip on the WMATA Red Line—I took my usual spot standing near the back door on the left side of Car 4. Today, WMATA was on their BS and there were delays so it was a bit more crowded than usual. One of the guys squishing me against the door was playing his music so loud that I could hear it through my Bose QC25 headphones. He was listening to Craig David’s “Fill Me In”. I chuckled as I remembered that jam from half my life ago. That brings me to this week’s moment in the Flashback Friday series: Craig David’s “Fill Me In” music video.
How I first came across this moment? I first saw the music video in June 2001, when it played on MTV’s Total Request Live.
What it meant to me then? I totally dug the concept of the video. It was basically a crew of guys hanging around in a local record store, listening to Craig tell a story about a rendezvous with his neighbor, who had overprotective parents. I was intrigued by some of the aesthetics from the video like the beanie hats and black jackets he wore throughout the video and the 2000 Jeep Wrangler 4×4 he drove. That actually influenced a portion of my Tokyo swag and jumpstarted my love for Jeep. Oh, and I can’t forget how jealous I was of his chinstrap goatee. In the October 25 entry of Triumphs & Tribulations II, I wrote “growing a chinstrap goatee like Craig David” as one of the things I wanted to accomplish as a 17-year-old. There was that one time in January 2002, where I nearly caused my then-girlfriend to bust her 11pm curfew. I felt like Craig did at the end of the video when my girlfriend made it through her door at 10:59pm.
What it means to me now? Until today, I hadn’t seen the video in several years. All of the things I liked and thought about it back in 2001 still apply but outside of that, it doesn’t carry the kind of weight it did when I was 16 and 17. I still like it though.
