Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Damn good video

I've seen a wonderful Nigerian music video by rapper, eLDee. The beauty of the video is in its simplicity. It is basically a montage of pictures from the African continent, interspersed with eLDee's face, plain shot of him rapping, and shot of him in New York. The shots of his face are in greyish, and don't stray to any part of his body. The greys allow for artistic flair, but also hide any evidence of spots, blemishes, tribal marks, or bleaching for what can be a superficial audience. The shots in New York are also simple enough. His lyrics give much weight to the images and vice versa, so we have a hard-hitting song, with a correspondingly hard-hitting video. Nothing flashy, nothing likely to be very expensive, just a bit of inventiveness - and voila!

Thanks to Wunmi for the heads-up.

7 comments:

? said...

maybe our blogs could be influencial in spreading the message and starting something much much bigger...presumably we should all have something to say, or be influencial in spreading the message intelligently and without violence...

i would think, the message or much of it is in line with what we hear and see in Naija and certainly need more people to stand up

for the avoidance of doubt, am not commenting on the quality of the music or on elDee as a rapper

however i am quite impressed by his ingenuity and that of his producers and like Nkem said "Nothing flashy, nothing likely to be very expensive, just a bit of inventiveness - and voila!
"

nice post

Anonymous said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Anonymous said...

By the way, you can't compare LD (Lanre Dabiri) to the rest of these Nigerian Musicians.

He's a guy like you and I. Wnt to the alright secondary schools, UNILAG, has as degree in architecture, etc.

What we need is more middle-class participation in the arts to show those who have no opportunity to learn what QUALITY means.

tori said...

...and of course i do my little ElDee plug a few days after you do....and not nearly as eloquently...I should just delete it now!

Anonymous said...

i know u posted this blog a while ago but i'm just coming round to checking the video out (no speakers). I'm very impressed - looking harder, it actually seems as if he's the one holding the camera as he rotates atound a fixed pivot point. I cant say i'd listen too deeply to the song if it came on the radio so yeah you're quite right...the video does make the song.

Feyikogbon said...

I go yarn the video

http://imediaplayground.com/Untitled-1.html

Anonymous said...

My name is Dele Thomas, I live in Los Angeles and I have to agree with you all. The video is good and ingenious and the lyrics you all have to listen to. It`s hard hitting and reminds us of how much Nigeria is blessed and still appears to be cursed. I hope some of the powers that be stumble upon this song and listen to it over and over, maybe it will change their minds and ways. To me its like an Aluta song a song for a new day and change to the Nigerian consciousness and way of life
Nuff Said
Dele Tee.