Japanese news station does story on dumpster diving rap video made in Guelph
“Is this for real?” Eli Winterfeld wondered. “I thought it was a prank,” said Dan Kruger. How would you react upon learning your homemade video had made it onto Japanese television?
In October of 2012, Winterfeld, Kruger and Matt Little released a homemade rap video addressing the alternative, anti-waste act of dumpster diving. In the video the three rappers, each under their respective aliases, ramble around Guelph spitting rhymes and picking food from dumpsters. Less a year after the single, “We be Dumpsta Diving,” was released it has had over 10,000 views on YouTube, and has subsequently been picked up by a Japanese television station.
The lines as to how the video reached the other side of the world are a little blurred. According to Kruger, “There’s a guy writing a musical in New York called “Dumpster Diver: The Musical” and he was thinking about using our song in it. We never heard from him but somehow he has a connection with this [Japanese] TV station and told them about our YouTube video.” From there the television station contacted Dave Lawless, who was responsible for the filming and posting of the video, via his YouTube account asking for an interview with the rappers.
The interview, carried out by popular Japanese host John Kabira, has yet to be translated word for word, but Kruger says, “From what I’ve heard, they are talking about how much waste there is in North America, specifically in the US.” Kabira and his co-host acknowledge the serious waste problem, but still have their reservations about dumpster diving. “They’re sort of incredulous, as most people are when they first hear about [dumpster diving],” said Kruger.
So are the three getting bombarded with Japanese fan mail, you ask?
“Here’s the little secret about this whole saga,” said Kruger “We don’t think that [the interview] was actually ever aired. The [YouTube] views didn’t go up at all on the day it was ‘aired,’ and when I asked if it was aired, the producer replied with, ‘I told you it was a live interview.’ And that’s all he said.”
Dumpster diving is considered illegal, despite much of the wasted food being totally edible. Winterfeld says he still collects some of his food in this manner, attaining “20 to 40 per cent,” of his calories from dumpsters of big-box retail and grocery stores, “depending on the season.” He has been doing this for quite some time now, and has yet to get sick from it.
Although the interview may not hit the airwaves overseas, Kruger and Winterfeld are glad to have had this unique experience. They’re not famous in Japan yet, but both the interview and the original rap can be found on YouTube.