http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgORfR-3OUc

On D’banj’s Bother You.

/in

Something different from D’banj. Maybe not entirely different but substantially different from his oeuvres in recent times. And it is easy to seewhy. It is the Original Sound Track of Biyi Bandele-directed Half of Yellow Sun, the film adaptation of the Adichie’s second novel. They needed something exotic, African-sounding, suitably rhythmic to carry the thrust of the plot, a love story with the Biafran war as a backdrop.

I would have preferred a song that would be more true to that era. Highlife was the popular genre then and Highlife, in itself, is quite important to the civil war as a discourse. Adichie’s novel did pay due obeisance to Highlife by reference but in film perhaps it might be difficult to make this work. Really, how difficult is it to assemble a band to play Celestine Ukwu’s Biafran song, “Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice, we are all free.” Mind you, I am yet to see the movie.

Bother You will have to do. Snatches of the film interspersed with the beach scene with D’banj, his love interest and a horse will just have to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAVY889HO4Q&src_vid=xyUWaeb3MAc&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_1607268609

On Top The Video

/in

Hit songs have disappointing videos very often. Sadly, Wizkid’s 2013 hit song follows this unfortunate tradition, not from the lack of possibilities or resources, but from sheer complacency and worn stereotypes. How does the On Top Your Matter Video differ from that of Caro?

The diasporan appeal? The mulatto video vixen? The attention to feminine posterior details? The glossy finery of an entertainer’s life and shebang? Okay, one can add the street cycle stunt therein and Wizkid’s hideous hand-gestured love sign.

Without adding any value to the song, the video is a perfect valentine package, however it is a pity that it is empty. No thanks to Sesan.

On Davido’s Aye Video

/in

Davido is an impressive young musician. Why you may ask? He has a strong sense of how to meld traditional elements into the contemporary evolving art form in which he practises. Aye, a very emergent experimental sound, deserves an unusual video. So it becomes interesting that the video is shot in an agrarian village settlement with scenes cut from a cassava plantation, an old mud house and a village dance benefit. Like in Gobe, there is that imminent threat of danger when the Queen becomes the love interest of a humble Davido who perhaps has just his jaunty strides and dimples to offer. It’s enjoyable though, the experience of the tune and the video intrepretation. Kudos to Clarence Peters.

On Caro

/in

Femmes fatales abound in timeless songs: from Angelina to Maxine to Salome to Caroline, especially Caroline.

Caroline, short form Caro, is a name that has been with us for ages; perhaps this name is even at risk of extinction, but, thankfully, this name resurfaced quite nicely in one of Wizkid’s recent songs.

Wizkid hardly needs introduction. Young prolific star notorious for many reasons, chief of which is his uncanny ability to make hits.

As the song begins, someone mumbles Iya Agba, whatever that means. Wizkid goes ahead to introduce this timeless character with a complimentary assertion, Caro your body necessary.

The attractive stature of Caro has never been in dispute. Dipo Sodipo characterizes her as a fair damsel in his own lamentable treatise where Caro absconds with a white man who also cons her. Wizkid’s Caro is, of course, by far more exploratory. Her sexual appetite is the stuff of legend however. She favours early morning sex. She is a tireless tigress. She gives majestic orgasms.

It is fascinating that Caro narrative has changed. A libertarian expression of Caro which had hitherto been left unsaid or subtly implied has been put to the fore. Caro has become the short form for Cougar; perhaps this is why Wizkid and his cohort kept adjoining their adulation with the disconcerting word, Iya Agba.

Beyond being a wondrous song, a smash hit and referencing old material with brazen honesty, I hope Caro will be a reason for us to start naming our female neonates Caroline again!

Shades of L by Tosin Akingbulu

/in

Tosin Akingbulu’s Shades of L has won the Isele Spoken Word Competition! I had no doubt that she would win. Here is my thought about her poem, “In Tosin Akingbulu’s Shade of L, L symbolizes love and life, the essence of human existence. Fluid thoughts plumb difficult realities, foibles and shortfalls—people grow out of love, people can love without being in love. With a feminine scalpel, a postmortem is conducted on a faulty relationship and misgivings are probed in introspect. Sublime lines become pithy maxims that reek of absolute truth as man’s true nature is pondered on.”

Congratulations to her.