The Story Behind New Eli Porter Documentary, “The People’s Champ” (Exclusive Interview)

Regular readers know that I'm fascinated with Eli Porter. Like the literally more than two million people who have watched the classic "Iron Mic" freestyle battle, there's something far more compelling than simple base humor happening. Who is Eli Porter? How did he end up in that battle? Thankfully two men, Walker Warren and his production partner Trent Babbington have taken it upon themselves to answer those questions and more with their new documentary "The People's Champ". In an exclusive interview, I got on the phone with Warren to find out the story behind the flick, and behind Eli.

RefinedHype: "I'm assuming like the rest of the world you first say Eli on the "Iron Mic" video. What the process between seeing that video and making this documentary?"

Walker Warren: "I first saw the video Spring of 2008 and I thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. That summer I showed it to everyone, I watched it on repeat continuously. Everyone wanted to know 'where's Eli? Does he even know the video's this popular?' My dad actually gave me the idea to actually go out and find him, but I didn't think it was possible until Eli's MySpace surfaced and there was an actual way to get a hold of him.

He was hesitant to open up for interviews because he'd been on the internet and for the most part people hadn't been nice. But we kept in touch but finally he agreed to some on camera interviews and Trent and I saved enough money to actually do it."

RefinedHype: "Where is Eli living now?"

Walker Warren: "He's in Atlanta. So we flew down there and it couldn't have gone better. He's an incredibly interesting person and we got some great footage."

RefinedHype: "You can't make a documentary about a viral video, there has to be a deeper storyline. What was that story for you?"

Walker Warren: "The Eli video is funny no doubt, but there was obviously something deeper there. And especially when you heard his music on MySpace, you realized he's a legitimately talented emcee. He's ten times more talented and interesting than half the emcees rapping today. How many more times can we hear a Bow Wow mixtape? Eli's got some real shit he's been through some real struggle, and that makes him automatically more interesting.

What if you woke up one morning and your name was all over the internet? Eli didn't ask for this - there are Eli t-shirts, videos, iPhone apps. So how that must feel, and how Eli reacted to that, makes for a great documentary."

RefinedHype: "How does he feel, overall, about the video?"

Walker Warren: "A lot of people run, they can't handle situations like this. But in this documentary you get to see Eli's struggle to make the best of it, and for the most part I think he succeeds. He talks about the burden it's brought onto his life, but at the same time he knows he can't go back in time. What's done is done."

RefinedHype: "Looking at the trailer it seems like you managed to track down a lot of the major players from the video."

Walker Warren: "Once people learned that we really just wanted to tell their story, that we weren't sketch comedians, the process became a lot easier. Eventually, as word spread about us, people continued to come forward. We never thought we would get as much good footage as we did - and right now we're still adding some new interview that were left off from the first round. Now that people have seen the trailer they know we're simply looking to give them a platform to tell their story."

RefinedHype: "You've talked about Eli's struggles, and in the trailer it looks like Eli has some medical condition. What are those struggles that Eli's going through?"

Walker Warren: "Eli approaches that subject in his own way. We didn't want him saying anything he didn't want revealed to the public. Not to give it away, but Eli's gone through more than people can imagine, and I think most people would buckle from what he's undergone. I couldn't handle what he's been through, but he's doing an incredible job keeping his head above water. That's what we wanted to get across in this documentary. To have people step inside his shoes and realize he's not a character. He's a real guy. This is a real person."

RefinedHype: " So as a person, what is he like?"

Walker Warren: "He's laid back, really cool to hang out with, and funny. I remember hanging out with Eli in Red Lobster playing MFK and it was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. And he's very musical, he's really talented. I've been around a lot of musicians, and he definitely has that innate talent, a real passion for music. He listens to all the classic - Wayne, Ludacris, Nipsey Hussle - but he listens to gospel and rock too, so it was always easy to talk about music.

This is one of the most fulfilling projects I've ever worked on, and I can't wait for the world to see it."

Warren and Babbington are currently finishing production on "The People's Champ" and are aiming to release it in the next few months. Keep it locked to RefinedHype for updates.