in a video whose song is dedicated to her is not
an easy endeavour. But that is what hip-hop star,
Orezi, who returned from South Africa about two
weeks ago where he was on a tour as well as for
the shooting of the video of his hit song,
Rihanna, set out to do. The articulate Orezi told
journalists in Lagos his experience a day after his
arrival from South Africa.
At an 'Orezi meets the Press' event in Lagos
penultimate Thursday, the fast rising Orezi explained
why he chose South Africa to shoot his Rihanna video
among many other things.
He said he had previously shot two videos in Nigeria
before now, but he wanted to achieve something
different with the Rihanna video. I just had the feeling I
had to go to South Africa because I don't want the
situation where anyone sees the video and
immediately knows that I am from so and so place. I
wanted people to make an effort to know where I am
from because I am not just a Nigerian artiste, I am
global, so the video is aimed at reaching out to
everybody, anywhere", he explained.
But why dedicate a song to Rihanna? "I like her; I like
any pretty woman that has made a mark. I believe she
will like Orezi, too when she meets him", was Orezi's
response.
The video, a fine piece of work, was screened to the
select group of impressed journalists. Orezi, beaming
with satisfaction, said it was over to the journalists to
judge for themselves whether the quality was not
better than most videos on the scene at the moment.
"Indeed, Sprisal Records did a good job on this video.
We did not spare anything, money, manpower and
technology. This is the second time I am seeing the
video after it was edited and my management team
decided that our media partners should be the first set
of people to see the video in Nigeria before it goes
public", Orezi said.
What was perhaps missing in the video is the American
super diva Rihanna. But that does not take anything
away from it as audiences who have already started
seeing it aired on terrestrial and satellite television will
attest. When all efforts to get Rihanna to feature in the
video did not work out, Orezi and his management
team as well as his label, Sprisal Records, decided to
shop online for a Rihanna lookalike. The search finally
paid off when Kim sent in her entry from Mauritius and
was chosen over 200 pictures.
Not wanting to either confirm or dispel the reports that
the reported N7.3 million spent on the video, Orezi said
the entire crew of Sprisal Records, including the
producer, were all taken to South Africa.
"Most artistes just travel alone to shoot videos with
what they get on ground there. We had a large cast, we
spent money on bringing Rihanna, we engaged the
services of the best filming company in South Africa to
shoot the video. I won't confirm or deny the report, but I
just gave you and overview for you to see if truly a
huge sum of money was spent on this video. By the
way, is the video you just watched not worth more than
that amount?"
The meet with the press was also an opportunity for
Orezi to clear the air on the issue of which record label
he is signed on.
"I am signed on to Sprisal Records and the deal is
good. I have a boss that is like an elder brother who
listens and does things, which has made the affair so
far a blissful one. HKN? We had a contract, we had
working arrangement which never led to a contract for
whatever reason but the fault definitely was not from
our side. Anyway, I have moved on, I am the next big
thing at the moment," he stated.
"We had a wonderful time in South Africa; it was truly a
rewarding experience and a most educative one for me
as a very young artiste. At the end, we came with
something that the world will talk about for a long time
to come, the video for the all time popular hit song,
Rihanna," Orezi said
No comments:
Post a Comment