Director Chris Robinson has created some of the most enduring Hip-Hop visuals of the last 25 years — highlighted by his ability to mix humor, authenticity, and that rare knack of being able to get superstars to put their egos aside in service of his vision.

He recently sat down with BET to discuss his storied career, recalling days of fighting the weather to shoot Jay-Z's "Roc Boys" video inside the 40/40 Club, and much more.

Below, we've highlighted some of our favorite anecdotes on the making of his music videos.

P. Diddy (feat. Black Rob & Mark Curry) - "Bad Boy 4 Life"

Chris Robinson: Those were the years when we would go plan a video and then halfway through the video, Diddy would go, “I gotta shoot another one tomorrow with a different group. Can you do it?” And I’d be like, “Okay.” It was just a beautiful time. We shot that on the backlot on Wisteria Lane, made famous by the Desperate Housewivesshow and it was great. Getting all those cameos was the power of Diddy. A lot of people were already in L.A. likePat O’Brien, Ben Stiller, Mike Tyson, Ice Cube, and Shaq who all came through. That time was a combination of Diddy’s superstardom and the culture, the energy that was happening at the time. He had Sean John going and it was a beautiful time to be a part of it and to have the freedom to create within it was a dream for a director.

Nas - "One Mic"

Chris Robinson: I was at a small museum in Soweto, South Africa and there was a picture of all these children that left school one day and were marching during Apartheid. The policeman shot into the crowd and murdered a bunch of children from 8-15. Another photo showed a child carrying another child who was shot. That image stuck with me. It was in my heart and head. Everywhere people of color are, we catch hell. So I started conceiving ideas for “One Mic” and thought about the bravery of those kids protesting in South Africa and what was going on with young girls in America. I thought, “They're never going to do this because the labels were really about entertaining the audience, not telling a message.”

When I sent it, Nas immediately got it. I wanted to go to Africa to shoot it because I was so inspired but the label wasn’t going for it. We wound up shooting the whole video in L.A. We had some great scouts back then and they were going up to different places with different looks. We had a great art director named Rob Buono, a genius who did so much stuff with me. John Perez shot it on a 35-millimeter. I thought that song was special and the idea was special. We were honoring the people and honoring these children in South Africa.

Jay-Z - "Roc Boys (And the Winner Is)...

Chris Robinson: Getting Jay, Nas, and Diddy in the same room was incredible but that video was tough to shoot. We’re in New York City at the 40/40 club which was new at the time in the middle of winter. It was snowing and raining. Every person wanted to shoot for five minutes and leave. It was a stressful day for me. But none of that matters, right? What matters is when you saw it and how it made you feel. We found a kid who looked like a young JAY-Z in Coney Island and we shot a bunch of stuff inside those projects and made a movie magic. The pressure came because it was attached to the American Gangster soundtrack and there was a certain amount of time we had to turn it in. I flew my editor from LA to New York, and we pulled that off in something like 32 hours in a hotel, So from the time we finished shooting to the time it came on TV was, like 48 hours. I think we slept for like a week after that.

Read the entire profile over at BET.