Was "Dorobucci" Video That Bad?

 

"Dorobucci... Don Dorobucci". So goes the first line of the Don Jazzy-produced song for Mavin Records, Dorobucci. To say the song is a hit is an understatement. It is a mega, super, massive hit! If that is established, why are fans far from satisfied with the video of the song? To better understand this situation, one must first understand the psyche of the ordinary Nigerian music-lover.

First off, the average Nigerian music-lover is tired. Yes, tired! "Tired of what?" You may ask. The Nigerian music-lover is tired of the 'rubbish' being released these days in the name of music videos. Once a video is about to be released, you can guess its contents. If there is no scene where scantily clad girls are gyrating, you can be sure to see one where some heavy partying is going down. If there is no party scene, you can expect the artiste in a scene singing while a lovely, scantily-clad lady caresses every part of his body. Does this mean there are no more creative video directors in Nigeria? Of course, not! But sometimes, the pressure to deliver the market standard (in our case, girls shaking their bum bum) is so much that instead of releasing a world-class video, artistes now go for videos loved by marketers.

Whatever is wrong with the Nigerian entertainment industry is a story for another day.

According to film-maker and critic, Charles Novia, the video (for Dorobucci) was not good for a number of reasons:

- The concept of the video was skewed and the location of the video had 'issues' (why was it not shot in Nigeria by the way?). The choreography in the video needed some Nigerian flavour, seeing as some of the Mavin Records' signees were completely overwhelmed in the video (again, that concept of too-many girls in a particular scene).

Honestly, in from TATTLES' perspective, the video was 'just there'. Yes, it had neither the comedic factor of Waje's Onye video (directed by Kemi Adetiba) nor the evident choreography of Mc Galaxy's Sekem video (directed by Patrick Elis).

The problem with the video, in TATTLES' opinion, was the song. We have played and danced to Dorobucci so much that much of the initial excitement one felt when the song was first released has worn out. The video was always going to be bland, irrespective of any concept evolved by Don Jazzy and the Mavin crew.