FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Entertainment

[Premiere] 'East Atlanta Santa' Gucci Mane Goes CGI for Christmas

'Black Santa Thrives' this Christmas with FELT Zine’s latest holiday issue.
Images courtesy of FELT Zine

Every Saturday, The Creators Project premieres a new issue from net art platform and artist collective, FELT Zine.

Christmas might be Jesus’ birthday, but this December 25th, FELT Zineis celebrating the second coming of GUCCI. 'Black Santa' is the star of FELT’s holiday issue Black Santa Thrives!, a 3D interactive website by FELT’s Mark Digital, featuring a Gucci Mane Claus sporting a Louis Vuitton robe and Channel/FENDI boots and belt. Wrapped up in Black Santa emoji wrapping paper, Gucci stunts within in this virtual winter wonderland alongside other Christmas staples like Bambi, Mickey Mouse, and of course, the Grinch.

Advertisement

It wouldn't be Christmas if we neglected to note that last week, Guwop dropped The Return of East Atlanta Santa, a holiday miracle.

This week’s site was made using Blend4web software and JavaScript 3D library three.js. The images were made in a 3D modeling program called Daz3D using basic OpenGL rendering. For the site’s creator, it was important to build the web experience using programs and tools that are completely free on computer with little processing power.

Digital tells the The Creators Project, “I grew up in a house where we had ornaments and imagery of both black and white Santas, but the Black Santa was always at the top of the tree, or had some other prominent placement. The idea was never that one Santa was better than the other, but that we, as black children could be anything we wanted, and we could adopt narratives to empower us.”

For Digital, Black Santa isn't just about being Santa, it’s about making children of all races feel pride and inclusion during the holiday. This project aims to challenge people like Megyn Kelly, who insists that Santa is white despite Claus being a fictional character. On a list of about 21 A-list actors who have portrayed Santa Claus in movies and television, only one of them is a non-white male—see Whoopi Goldberg in Call Me Claus.

Mark writes, "With Black Santa Thrives! we embody the most ratchet Santa possible. We need a Woke Santa who understands why #BlackLivesMatter and struggles with his 'sugar' during the holidays.”

Advertisement

This week’s holiday issue of FELT comes with a special 30 minute mix courtesy of devHD. Listen to this stream of holiday bangers below:

You can check out more of Mark Digital’s work on his Instagram, and click here for more FELT Zine. The Return of East Atlanta Santa by Gucci Mane is now available on iTunes.

Related:

[Premiere] A Digital Living Space Predicts the Home of the Future

[Premiere] Jeremy McKeehen's Vision of a Transhuman Future

Digital Still Lifes Chronicle a Modern Day Drug Lord