5 Video Clips from Ghana 2021: Music With Attitude

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Ghana has a budding music scene with many talented artists. Over the past ten years, many of them are doing great with little or no support. The government of Ghana has failed when it comes to supporting artists, especially musicians. Even though there is a Ministry meant to support this form of art, little or nothing is done. This however, isn’t stopping these musicians from creating – and churning out greatness. Here are five video clips from Ghana from five amazing musicians you should know about.

Musician: Akan
Director: Yaw Skyface
Track: Me Sika Aduro

In the opening line of this song, Akan raps «God used sand to create man, but man couldn’t stand afterwards, so God mixed some money with the sand and man was able to finally stand». This song is about money and Akan talks about how bad he needs money. Money propels the world and one can’t simply live without it. In the video, Akan receives ‹prayers› from a pastor who seems to be possessed. He then transitions into a world where he gets all the gold, money, clothes, and women he wants. What I love about this video is the minimalistic approach that was beautifully executed. Akan raps in a dialect called Twi and he is a master of this language.

Musician: Wiyaala
Director: Wiyaala
Track: Wisii (The Sun God)

Wiyaala is a bold, fierce, and talented artist. She hails from the Northern part of Ghana (Upper West Region) and proudly carries her hometown, region, and country on her back. Wisii is a song of hope, but I love this video because of how Wiyaala ‹sells› her hometown once again: From the smocks that the young boys wear to the artist’s hairstyle, and how the beautiful women dress and carry their babies. The melody of the song is lovely and it’s easy to sing along. Wiyaala has many great videos but this one always gets my attention because of the characters, the location of the video, and the melody.

Musician: Amaarae
Director: David Nicol Sey of North Production
Track: Fancy

Amaarae is quite new on the scene and has been dropping some amazing videos over the years. This young musician has defied the norm in Ghana and empowered women to be themselves through her music and videos. She is all about women’s empowerment and encourages people, especially women, to be expressive. From the car to her clothes and the set design, this video is truly fancy and the director did a great job with it.

Musician: Wanlov
Director: Fotombo
Track: My Toto

This video went viral in Nigeria and Ghana when it was released. It’s a very low-budget video but it grabs your attention and that is one thing I love about it. For years, women have been objectified in music videos, so it is quite new and very interesting to see a man play ‹the role› of the woman in this video. I honestly want to see many videos like this, I want to see videos where gender roles are switched.

Musician: Sister Deborah and Wanlov the Kubolor
Director: Wanlov Kubolor Cini
Track: RefuseReuseRecylce

This one is more about the message of the video rather than the video itself for me. Plastic pollution has been a global problem for some time now and several people have called for or are working towards the ban on plastics, but in Ghana the government is not even addressing the plastic problem. It’s not even on the table for discussion. Gutters are choked, the ocean is packed with plastics, and little or no work is being done to curtail this. When it rains, there is flooding because of plastics. It is my wish to see a total ban on single-use plastics in Ghana.

The film «Contradict» by Peter Guyer and Thomas Burkhalter was officially selected at the Norient Film Festival NFF 2021. See full program here.

This film is available for streaming on demand. Find out more about our streaming offer by clicking on the image below:

«Contradict», Thomas Burkhalter and Peter Guyer, Switzerland/Ghana 2020.

Biography

Mutombo da Poet is a spoken word artist, photographer and blogger from Ghana. Follow him on BandCamp, SoundCloud, Instagram, or Facebook .

Links

Thomas Burkhalter: «Visions of a New World – Ghana» (Norient)

Nana Akosua Hanson: «Building Kinder Worlds – Mental Health in Ghana» (Norient)

Martyn Pepperell: «A Matter of Representation – Documenting Ghanaian Artists» (Norient)

Martyn Pepperell: «Country Music in Africa» (Norient)

Martyn Pepperell: «Dancing in the Church: Religion in Ghana» (Norient)

Published on July 01, 2021

Last updated on August 18, 2021

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5 Video Clips from the Arab World

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by ABADIR

Over the past decade, we have witnessed flourishing music scenes in the Arab region, from the Morrocan rap scene, Egyptian mahraganat, rap, and electronic, to the unique standard of rappers in Palestine and the solid club scene in Lebanon despite all the political and economic turmoil. Not only did these fresh sounds and innovative visions steal the spotlight from mainstream artists on a local level – after the pop artists failed to cope with the shift in youth’s taste, the music industry and the advertising agencies started to appropriate the aesthetics of rappers and mahraganat artists – but they have also gained worldwide recognition.

In recent years, it has become obvious that changes and mutations in music styles in these scenes are happening fast. The most significant artists among this group are building a link between their innovation and the future, while leaving the repetitive present behind. For example the Egyptian artists 3phaz merge Mahraganat beats with UK bass. Ranging from 3D graphics, game engines, animations, lo-fi experimentation, and strong performance, I chose five videos that I believe are showing the futuristic sense of their music producers and/or video makers.

Artist: MSYLMA
Track: Dhil un Taht Shajaret Al Zaqqum (Saudi Arabia, 2019)
Label: Halcyon Veil

Made by media artist and music producer Omar El Sadek, this is one of the very few 3D-worldbuilding videos within the Arab region. By relying on Cinema 4D, El Sadek reflects MSYLMA’s dark and mysterious aesthetics. With his fictional persona and narrative, and driven by pre-Islamic and Quranic poetry, he traces his transition from childhood to adolescence to adulthood with his existential questions. This unsettling, dream-like sequence showcases great design and masterful animation in the morphing process of an ambiguous creature, in addition to crafty manipulation of camera movement, shadow, reflections, and contrast tone and lighting. It ends with the creature’s gradual demise on the backdrop of a sunset scene.

Artist: Shabjdeed
Track: From Ramallah to Jerusalem and Back (Palestine, 2019)
Label: BLTNM Records

With his first outstanding album, Sindibad El Ward produced by Al Nather, Shabjdeed marked himself as one of the major rappers in the local scene and, in my opinion, one of the strongest rappers at the international level. In addition to Al Nather’s playful drill beats and Shabjdeed’s unique flows and crafty lyricism, the video’s soundtrack contains excerpts from three songs from Shabjeded’s debut album. This video, directed by Hannah Rosselin, follows Shabjdeed in his everyday life, capturing all the mundane details, switching between tense and laid-back scenes. The technique used to document a normal day from Ramallah to Jerusalem is noteworthy, especially the quick camera movements and the impressive wide shots from high angles. The video succeeds in projecting Shabjdeed and BLTNM’s direction; it adresses politics without any tired cliches from the past, representing the true spirit of street life, telling stories of Palestinian youths without empty slogans or self-victimization. The same video concept has been applied, to some extent, using animated characters in Kteer Ktar, by Kareem Soltan and Tomeye Studio.

Artist: Zaid Khaled x El Waili
Track: Lame (Egypt, 2020)

Since his first appearance, Zaid Khaled has mastered the art of switching between genres, introducing a fresh pop sound to the region and infiltrating the rap scene. Unlike previous collaborations, which resulted in hits like Lal Nour and ABULZOOZ, Lame focuses rather on the visual presentation. By collaborating with 3D designer Hazem Zakaria, Khaled takes video production in the region to the next level. If there is anything video producers in the rap scene should avoid, it is the typical, repetitive aesthetics where rappers appear in front of the camera with an excess of misogyny, ego, and narcissism. Using a game environment, Zakaria builds an imaginary colorful world that later transitions to a long falling scene and ends with ruptured structures. The video complements Khaled’s romantic lyrics sung over a mahraganat beat by El Waili, creating a beautiful contrast.

Artist: ZULI
Track: Trigger Finger (Egypt, 2018)
Label: Haunter Records

It’s been four years since ZULI released his single Trigger Finger, but it still sounds so fresh, which speaks to the futuristic vision of this banger. By releasing this track, ZULI made his entry into the UK bass scene and stormed every dancefloor with his fresh elements to Jungle. Dirty textures, distorted breaks, and heavy exploding bass have been visually translated, by NO TEXT, through VHS-aesthetics. Listening to this jungle track with its unique formula and innovative sound while watching the blurry lo-fi aesthetics of the video totally disrupts time, which is probably the most attractive element in this video.

Artist: Khtek
Track: KickOff1 (Morocco, 2020)

After her open-mic experience in the streets of Morocco, and a successful series of freestyle videos on YouTube, Khtek kickstarted her professional career with «KickOff». In the video directed by Alaa Eddin Rais, Khtek appears in a T-shirt with the slogan «The Future Is Woman» on it, and with a kick-ass attitude. The video direction amplifies her strong presence and captures her old school, aggressive, and unique style, which promises a new wave of Morrocan rap. In «KickOff», Khtek announces herself as a rapper, launching an alternative strand in the local street rap thanks to her skillful word play, flawless rhymes, and strong performance.

1. Thanks to Haikal Hezgi for explaining the lyrics in detail.

Biography

AِBADIR (Rami Abadir) is a music producer and sound designer born in Cairo, Egypt. His work focuses on experimental, glitch, and ambient music, and he’s one half of the duo 0N4B. Together with the visual artists Nurah Farahat and Islam Shabana, he co-founded the audio/visual collective «Mapping Possibilities», which has been active in promoting A/V events since 2016. ABADIR is also the editor of the electronic music section of the Arabic music webzine «Ma3azef», where he also contributes as a writer on critical theory, music history, reviews, and interviews. Previously solo released on Hush Hush Records, Yerevan Tapes, Kaer‘Uiks, D.M.T. Records, and through 0N4B on Kaer’Uiks, ANBA, Aural Electronics.

Published on July 08, 2021

Last updated on August 18, 2021

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Desire

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The Power of Sound in Film: Hollywood + Bollywood

Q&A

by Miriam de Rosa

As part of the Q&A series of the 10^th Norient Film Festival 2021, the directors Midge Costin Making Waves (USA 2019), Subash Sahoo The Sound Man Mangesh Desai (India 2017) and the global cinema researcher Monia Acciari met with researcher Miriam de Rosa.

How important is sound in film? How can sound tell its own story? What are the differences and similarities of sound in other film industries? Listen back to this Q&A and find out more about the hidden power of sound in cinema.

Cut: MR LU*
Introduction & Production: Christopher Blatter

Trailer The Sound Man Mangesh Desai

Trailer Making Waves

This video is part of the Q&A program of the 10^th Norient Film Festival 2021. The talk was recorded on January 11, 2021, via Zoom.

Biography

Miriam de Rosa is an associate professor of film, photography and television at the department of philosophy and cultural heritage. Before arriving in Venice, she was senior lecturer at Coventry University (UK).She is the author of the monograph »Cinema e postmedia« (2013) and the co-editor (with Vinzenz Hediger) of »Post-what? Post-when? Thinking moving images beyond the post-medium/post-cinema condition«, a special issue of Cinéma&Cie forthcoming in fall 2016.