For the past two weeks, followers and fans of Blaqbonez have watched the buildup to the release of Back In Uni video at every step.
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First came the song itself, a 2 and a half minute long that leveraged on drill beats and JAE 5’s production for a trip down memory lane of Blaqbonez’s past relationship. As the pioneer of sex over love and, these situationships were about as lopsidedv as you would expect, and the Bling rapper confesses to having broken hearts down. Perhaps not his finest work, especially for those that have followed since the beginning, but for Blaqbonez, the actual release of the single is only half the job. Blaqbonez is effectively a music publicist, comedian and influencer who moonlights as one of Nigeria’s best rappers, so he swiftly got to work on the second half of music release business. And that’s where the video comes in.
First came the use of TG Omori. The ace director, who has all but monopolised mainstream Nigerian pop music videos, enjoys a decent following and engagements on twitter, so was perfectly placed to be used to market Blaqbonez new video. In a screenshot Blaqbonez shared on his twitter, he was seen begging the director for a shoot, to which he got slapped with a quote of $30k, an amount that was well outside Blaqbonez’s budget.
Now it is difficult to authenticate the veracity of this interaction (read: it was most probably doctored by Blaqbonez), but it is just as unnecessary. What matters are the eyeballs gathered and the ears cornered to see the message of Blaqbonez’s upcoming video. He continued with that storyline, with this disappointment assumedly forcing his direction debut, as he had to take the helm behind the camera, not just in front of it. With this build up, and a knowledge of who Blaqbonez is and what he is capable of, it would have been safe to expect a wild, creative visual. But Blaqbonez constantly raises the bar, so no one can claim to exactly have his pattern figured out – he is unpredictable in his unpredictability.
The video itself was a mix match of videos, and Blaqbonez has run a lot of inspiration through the creative funnel to emerge with this 3 and a half minute clip. Wizkid’s bad to me is the first reference of many, and before the video is over he’s had a chance to cosplay Burna Boy and Oxlade, take digs at Carter Efe and Portable, and hilariously weigh on the Bnxn – Ruger feud in support of his friend. There are others that will discover deeper hidden Easter eggs on further dissection, but his work here is done. Blogs are running the story of his new video, as well as reputable newspapers and music journals. On twitter, it has been acknowledged by some of the featured artists, other artists, comedians, influencers and of course the general tweeting public. If you want to get featured on the news, you can pay for advertising or become the news yourself. Blaqbonez prefers the latter, and this is his philosophy summed in so many words.
Over the past two years, Blaqbonez has put to work every publicity trick in the book, as well as a few of his own creation, so to come up with something new must have required some thinking – even for him. For the longest time over the pandemic, he was known as the #streamhaba guy, a 1 man marketing campaign that started off annoying, but, in what turned out to be a common theme for him, ended up recruiting influencers and other twitter users into publicising for him, by commenting even on tweets that have no business with music. Later, he had a new release, and a new way to market it. For the single, aptly named BBC, he went around displaying his black cock. Most recently, he took the opportunity of the widely celebrated lover’s day, February 14th, to launch his anti-love crusade, an event that would turn out to be a massive success.
He courts controversy smartly, picking battles that would not actually run against the popular opinion, so his hypersexual, brash personality is more cloth than skin – to be worn when the situation warrants it, discarded as soon as it’s served its purpose. Aliases and nicknames come and go in accordance with what album era he’s currently in, so he’s been Mr. Boombastic, Emeka the stallion and before these, Super Emeka, Mr. Thompson and Rasaki all at once. Through all these names and eras, however, the man at its core remains unchanged, a creative genius and a model of self-marketing.
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