The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

After the Perfect Picture review , comes the blog entry about the soundtrack. if you know me well, you know I love music, especially African music. Sparrow Productions has been doing a great job concerning soundtracks, with the other movies like Life and Living it and Scorned . When the The Perfect Picture was being premiered, I knew a little about the soundtrack. After going through the movie, I'll like to talk about the songs featured, including the main soundtrack which brought to us Kwabena Kwabena's first music video, 'Do ne bi' . I couldn't help but smile when I heard Asem's Pigaro played. That song has been a huge hit but to play it in that scene was interesting. I wanted the song to be played in some club scene so we could introduce the Pigaro dance to movie viewers. The movie began and ended with hiplife songs, way to go Sparrow. Shiee, wow! The song used here was a remix and I loved the machine gun shots. "Pigaro 1, pigaro 2, pigaro 3, pigaro 4...

Following the success of Life and Living it and Scorned , I was excited to hear about the premiere of Sparrow Productions' The Perfect Picture . I talked about the excitement of Shirley Frimpong-Manso drafting Jackie Appiah and Kwaku Sintim-Misa into the movie. I got the VCD recently and have watched it twice. The first time, I didn't know what to make of the movie, it's not your average Ghanaian or African movie for that matter. Watching it a second time, I appreciated the movie more, and I am in love with it. Sparrow Productions, I salute you! Keep it up. Looking for Agya Koo in the next feature film though, so let's make it happen. Here's a review. The settings in the movie were great. It's clear the movie shows characters in a Ghanaian middle class; young affluent people navigating their love lives. The houses used were a little glamorous, is that how young executives in Ghana live these days? Which begs the question? Where are the young returnees and young...

If you ask me where the capital of music is, I'll have to tell you Johannesburg or in a more general case, South Africa. The number of music genres in South Africa is huge, from kwaito to rock, house to mbaqanga, and afro-pop to fusion. South Africa is surprisingly more diverse than people think it is, so I won't be surprised if there are South African bhangra or asian pop artistes. They do have a 14 year-old Chinese violinist prodigy. The Confederations Cup just ended in South Africa and the Bafana Bafana were third. It's sad the 'vuvuzelas' drowned out the melodious singing of other Mzansi folk :-) Before I get into a run down of my 10 favorite songs from South Africa, check out my 10 favorite Nigerian songs and 10 African songs I think you should know about. Go South Africa! Local is lekker! You may discover your next favorite song. Click the songs to find the lyrics, video, audio, etc. Black President - Brenda Fassie (Afro-pop) This song resurfaced a little w...

Frankly, I forget why I began writing about change. I don't know if this counts as a poem, it's basically a sequence of lines about change. But even changes have an end so I had to find a way to end a bunch of change lines. You can tell me whether I did a good job. Here goes, change is....... Change is what I wear every day Change is a constant k Change is a constant c, u c Change is seeing a different customer every day Change is having your peace disturbed Change is having your piece reduced Change is having your faith renewed Change is having your new dirtied Change is having your dirt publicized Change is having your Sunday Change is what you get after you get your sundae Change is what the seasons do Change is what the beggars press for Change is what the oppressed beg for Change is what we get when we travel Change is what we catch in our hands Change is what we grab with our hearts Change is what we stand for when others sit Change is why we are sitting when others stand...

Sometime last year, news broke of Obour, a Ghanaian rap artiste, wanting to run for president. It turned out he wasn’t serious about it, but he wondered why ‘young people’ couldn’t run for the highest office in the land. He wanted the minimum age for seeking for the presidency to be reduced from 40. He started a Youth for Presidency campaign saying the constitution was not fair to the youth. Kufuor was more than 60 when he became president and Atta Mills is 64 at the moment. Is the presidency of Ghana for retirees? Maybe it is. We are seeing a youth movement in the present NDC government though, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, an Odadee, is the present deputy minister of information and he is under 30. His age mate, Obour tells us what he would do if he were president in his ‘ President Obour ’ song. How will the youth handle such responsibility? Do we need more young leaders like Samuel? If we have to pay our dues before we get that type of responsibily, what are those dues? Bice Osei Kuffo...

I already blogged about 10 African songs I absolutely love and wanted to share. Nigerian music is doing very well these days and their artistes are among the most popular around the continent. I will look at 10 Nigerian songs that mostly have lyrics in English. I understand the message of these songs and it is a major reason I love them. I have always been a big fan of conscious music, they end up being the most played on my iTunes or iPod. I hope you will check them out and listen to them. You may discover your next favorite song. Click the songs to find the lyrics, video, audio, etc. Ebe like say - 2Face Idibia (Reggae/R&B) This song is probably my favorite English song from an African artiste and one of the songs I sing most in the shower. 2Face Idibia is my favorite non-Ghanaian musician as well. The song talks about the relationship the voter has with politicians. It was released on Tuface's second album (Grass to Grace), just in time for Nigeria's 2007 election. The...

I have already written two blog posts about Jerusalema, about the issues and the quotes . Why would I spend so much time on this movie? It's not from Ghana. I don't know any of the actors personally. It's from South Africa but it doesn't even have Terry Pheto or Leleti Khumalo. Especially Terry. But hey, I loved Jerusalema. It's lekker. And I feel like writing. So there. Why did I love it? Chao (many) reasons. What didn't I like about it? Some as well. Here are a few thoughts and observations. Let's start with the soundtrack. Music is a very important part of movies, nota bell to African movie producers. The movie featured Brenda Fassie's Nomakanjani , Vul'indlela , and Black president . These are all massive songs especially Vul'indlela which is highly recognisable all over Africa. The songs had nothing to do with the scenes when they were played but this is the "Madonna of the Townships" singing, her music is synonymous with Soweto a...

Most classic movies have great and memorable quotes. I have always had an issue with the "Kumasi" or "Agya Koo" type movies coming out of Ghana. I feel the language and dialogue in Ghanaian non-English movies is great and should be communicated adequately for people to appreciate the movies. The subtitles are terrible and don't carry the weight of the language's beauty. South Africa's Jerusalema has earned rave reviews but one of the greatest things about the film is the dialogue in my opinion. The quotes are so great that I saved a few to share with you all. (If you missed my earlier blog on issues arising from Jerusalema, read here . If you are going to steal, steal big and hope like hell, you get away with it. All property is theft I can't say I agree with the statement above but all property is theft? What a bold statement! Why is it that pretty girls always have big brothers? Has anyone experienced this too? I'll like to be the big brother t...

I have watched the South African movie, Jerusalema , about 4 times in the last month. It's pretty good. I personally enjoyed Tsotsi more but Jerusalema has a little more depth. South Africans in general seem to rate it higher than the Oscar-winning Tsotsi. Jerusalema is a movie about Lucky Kunene (played by Rapulano Seiphemo), a regular black South African who tries to make a living in the 'new South Africa', hatches up a plan to enrich himself and then must use his street smarts to survive. Lucky Kunene becomes a crime boss who takes 'affirmative repossession' to a whole new level. The movie won't be as great as it's claimed to be if it didn't throw light on various issues. I am going to discuss a few here. One big theme in Jerusalema is 'stealing'. The movie takes us to the late 1990's, whene Lucky Kunene and his friend Zakes are introduced to the carjacking business by an older friend, Nazareth. Nazareth has just returned from Russia, when...