Sequel to my
previous article titled
“Nigerian Music:My 21 Years and Its Many Generations” I present my chart as promised. My
consideration for selecting videos on this list is nothing to do with hit
tracks or multiplatinum status of any artiste, I consider basically the impact I
saw these videos make on the Nigerian audience both locally and internationally
going by their uniqueness and how revolutionary or even controversial they were
in their time.
Well, you
will not find a bad song on this list, but it’s also fair to note that not all
the songs were big hits, so it’s more of how impactful or memorable those
videos are and how well I thought they stayed ahead of competition in their
time than how big the songs or artistes are. The videos are listed in no
particular order.
1. Aye
o le – Infinity
This video
directed by Gbenga Salu came with the tag “one of the best Nigeria has ever
done”. Coming fresh from the already well loved debut video “Olori Oko”, the
group Infinity knew they needed a good follow-up and that’s exactly what “Aye O
le” was for them. Besides dominating many awards especially for best special
effects, they thrilled Nigerians so much that “the making” of the video itself
became an item on Nigerian entertainment TV shows, especially the then very
popular “Music Africa”.
2. No
be God – Gino
I wonder
where Gino is right now, but that is a guy who gave rap music a kind of video
that erupted comments like “Naija don go far o”. Shot within Festac, Amuwo
Odofin or Satelite town in Lagos, we saw a picture with 3D effects which were
good enough to make you think it was shot by some Hollywood crew, flown into a
suburb of Jamaica. We never had a Nigerian rap artistes come up with a musical
video that good and we sure loved it and still remember it.
3. Never
far Away – Lagbaja
Lagbaja never
had a bad video since the “We, Me, Abami” album, at least not one I can
remember. Well known as a very skilled and multitalented musician, but it was
never so portrayed in a musical video until he showed us a full orchestra of
classical music accompaniment for his R&B tune “never far away” with the
masked man himself playing the role of the music conductor. Managing to give us
a very sensible love storyline in an already eventful video is outstanding.
Location and costuming were terrific too. It’s a classic any day and a good
export for Nigerian and indeed African music.
4. Temptation
– P-Square ft. Alaye
The only
standard to rate a P-square video has always been against there own videos, I’m
sorry if you think otherwise but that is the only Nigerian music artiste/group
that has never had a bad video. Temptation was to me Nigeria’s first R&B
video with a non-indigenous but real foreign traditional concept well put together
and I’m sure it contributed to why some of their fans across the world couldn’t
believe they were Nigerians. Kudos to Jude Okoye, this was the first one to
make us feel like we were watching an R-Kelly video.
5. Love
me jeje – Sheyi Shodimu
This video was
a bully in my opinion. In 1998 when most “hip-hop artistes” in Nigeria couldn’t
boast of ever seeing the airport came a handsome Yoruba man with “akata” chicks
singing and rapping on a video shot in America. No doubt, it was an interesting
song and it was a unique and exciting video for the 90s but you can trust the
Nigerian media to give him all the attention deserving of an “international
artiste”. I also remember rumors of him being married to then little known Shaffy
Bello, who sang the chorus in the video which launched her into Nigerian
entertainment industry before she later became a Nollywood big timer herself.
6. Ada
Ada – Flavour
Due to many
reasons, Sunny Neji’s “Oruka” still reigns as Nigeria’s number one wedding
song, but I doubt if we’ve seen a wedding video this good. Flavour knew his
Igbo people have a rich wedding tradition and he portrayed it like never done
before by anyone in a musical video. Even Nollywood has never managed to give
us a wedding scene that beautiful in any movie. Clarence Peters represents the
new school and he did a good job here, for me, it is one of his best works.
7. Jagbajantis
– Sound Sultan
Now, this is
way back memory lane, the year 2000 if I’m right and ever since then, all my
attempts to get my brother Lanre Fasasi to explain how he got such a “team” of
talented, humorous and believable kid actors to cast in this video has not
yielded a satisfactory result. This video for me is by far the most exciting
musical video of that generation and I would celebrate a remake of it with the
same cast all now grown up. It won most of the awards in the video category for
that year.
8. Ijo
ya – Weird MC
We’ve been
having animations in musical videos which were equally very fantastic,
considering the level of technology and skill available those days, but with
due respect to the likes of Obiwon, “Ijo ya” gave us something totally
different. Firstly, it was a daring move making an animation for a dance
song/club banger like “Ijo ya” but it was so well done, we all loved it, we
even took away a dance routine from the cartoon characters and everyone, young
or old wanted to shake their bum to the sound of the talking drum. It’s so far
Nigeria’s favorite animation video.
9. Cry
– Mode-9 ft. Nneka
Where is the
Ghecko team? I wonder. But these guys shot one of the most memorable musical
videos for a rap artiste in Nigerian entertainment history. It was one of the
best seasons of Modenine’s career as he won multiple awards and became a
household name. Besides being a fantastic rapper and legendary artistes
himself, that video, similar to Infinity’s “Aye o le” in terms of special
effects did justice to his already wonderful music and they together took the
industry by storm. Interestingly, the video was a low budget project.
10. Beng
Beng Beng – Femi Kuti
The 1998
album titled “shoki shoki” was a typical example of a prophet having no value
in its own home. While the song was already banned on all Nigerian radio/TV
stations, Femi Kuti was riding on its global popularity to cement his place as
an international artiste and the real heir to the Fela Afrobeat dynasty. The
news of Femi’s sojourn abroad got Nigerians curious in an era when internet
penetration was so poor we couldn’t even watch it online, but Alaba market came
to our rescue as the video was dubbed off South-Africa’s Channel-O and made
available in bootleg compilations, subsequently becoming one of the most
popular videos in our streets and homes.
11. Senorita
– P-Square
Very few
artistes will come up twice on a list like this and I think P-Square is one of
the few who deserve it. Hip-hop choreographies were never as beautiful in Nigerian
musical videos until this one from the twins. Of course P-square has gone on to
later produce better dance videos with better choreographies than this, but I
chose this one because it was shot before their millions came and they still
did it well with little resources, in fact, I think starting off with the
quality of senorita video raised the bar for subsequent P-square videos.
12. Be
my man – Asa
Did you even
notice that Asa is the only female in that video shot on one single set? Well,
that’s not the reason I find it on my list of most memorable Nigerian videos in
the last 21 years. The beauty of the video is in the performance of the cast
and the colorful concept. Not a vintage philosophical music Asa is known for
but surely a unique video from a Nigerian female pop/soul artiste. “Fire on the
mountain” is another outstanding video from Asa, but I chose this one as my
favorite, after all the chart is based on my personal opinion, right? Thanks.
13. Dyna
– Daddy Showkey
The Ghetto
soldier ruled the 90s alongside his peers like former band mates Daddy Fresh,
Cashman Davies and Sexy Pretty, with others like Baba Fryo, Felix Duke,
Alariwo, and so on. The 1999 video was phenomenal in the sense that the song
was released in the “Ghetto Soldier” album almost a year before the video for
Dyna was shot and released, then suddenly an album which looked ordinary became
a bestseller. Those days, it wasn’t about special effects or pictures, it was
basically about the storyline, its delivery and how well the audience could
connect with it.
14. Mother
Mi – Twinax (now Twin-X)
Before you
say ojoro, there is nothing partisan here. When we set out to shoot a video for
our debut in 2000, we wanted something unique and never seen before and that
was exactly what we did. Besides being the first documentary music video, it
also was the first musical video to bring Nigerian movie stars together in a
non-acting role. With Eniola Badmus (Yeah, same “gbogbo bigz girlz”) and
Big-Bamo behind the camera crew, we had Vivian Metchie, Steph Nora, Uche Jombo,
Eyiyemi Prat and so on whom were all big stars of the pre-Nollywood era
alongside other entertainment stars like Kwame, Keke Ogungbe, Tony Tetuila,
Fada U-turn (OBM), Maintain etc. Mathematics by Sound Sultan however beat us to
all the awards we were nominated together. Lol.
15. Voice
of God – Alabai
Great talent
Alabai, my memory of people like him makes me smile when new school artiste and
their publicists claim kingship of Nigerian rap music. Due respect to the new
guys but I think some were just unlucky to have come earlier when the industry
wasn’t paying big bucks. Thanks to Alabai for giving us this great concept in
his video for his 2007 single, you’re free to strike it off my list if you can
show me five (5) better video concepts depicting God without being gospel or
religious.
16. Eni
duro – Olamide
Both “e ni
duro” and “durosoke” have similar concepts. I could have chosen “durosoke” for
few reasons. One, it was shot indoor which meant more technicalities, then
casting wise, Olamide was more focused on, except for the few models, yet he
gave us a one-man show which kept it exciting till the end. But “E ni duro”
stood out in its time for a budding artiste, the confidence he showed and the
characters he presented in that “street” video gave him the attention he enjoys
till today. More so, kudos to DJ-Tee, it was a product of little resources,
compared to Eni duro.
17. Nfana
Ibaga remix (No problem) Tu-face ft. Bennie Man & Reggie Rockstone
Unlike now
when artistes can afford to get on a track with any foreign star, it took the
coming of Jamaican star Bennie Man for a concert co-organized by Z-Mirage and
La-face Entertainment in 2004 for Kennis Music to arrange this collabo with
Tu-face, made easy by the star man’s personal interest in Tu Baba’s hit track
“Nfana Ibaga” which he requested a remix from the original producer OJB Jezreel
(OBM). But trust doubtful Nigerians to see this as a mere ”media hype” until
when the video of the song which also features Reggie Rockstone was shot in
Ghana and released later that year. I don’t know if the work had much
commercial impact on Tu-baba’s career, but it was our first time seeing one of
us in such high profile collaboration.
18. Nibo
lawa gbe lo – Maintain
Remember
Big-Bamo? The then artiste manager and XL-House label CEO earned a lot of
respect for the video concept; A Volkswagen story, a very funny and dramatic
video which expresses the many economic challenges of an average Nigerian. After
its release, most Nigerians perceived the group Maintain as comic artistes and
their stage performance was incomplete without reproducing some of the acts
they put up in the video. I still remember their performance at The Movie
Awards (THEMA) 2000 (now rested) where a giant caricature Volkswagen car made
of cardboards was brought on stage to wow the guests.
19. Strong
thing – Banky W
Now, this is
my typical example of thinking outside the box, I read some comments about this
video online and I saw how emotional Nigerians could be in supporting their
own. In an industry where a Love music or R&B video is commonly complete
with bum-shaking vixens, white girls, clubs, fast cars etc., I doff my heart to
Banky for this outstanding work which takes us through the 1930s of American
gangsterism. Apart from using a black girl as a lead character, the concept is
not in any way African but I agree that it is the kind of video we need to
shoot more often in order to aim for the Grammys.
20. My
Car – Tony Tetuilla
This one is
about “Tinubu u don hit my car”. Sincerely some people thought the then
governor of Lagos state Asiwaju Bola Tinubu could do Tony Tetuilla the unlikely
honour of featuring in the video of a song in which he mentioned his name
repeatedly, but no one saw the idea of having a little boy play Tinubu’s role
coming and it really worked. It was meant to be a diss song to then rival
Eedris Abdulkareem but the little boy concept took all the shine, great and
exciting video.
21. Onye
– Waje ft. Tiwa Savage
Besides being
one of my favorite female voices in Nigeria, Waje nailed it here with her
choice of whom to feature on this nice song (“I Wish” is my favorite of her
music though). We don’t often see Nigerian female singers of leading talents
come together on collaborations this good and it was good to see two beautiful
women you’d expect to be rivals showing so much synergy in this “comedy show”.
Can you beat that point when Waje “macho-walked” across the road ready to have
a fight with whoever “camped” her lover-boy? Most hilarious! It is an entertaining
video with fantastic acting.
Now this is my opinion, you may or may not agree with me on
some of the videos mentioned; especially some readers who may be too young to
remember or even value some of these videos. I’ll like to get your feedbacks. You
may reach out to me: