I'm on TV! MIghTy African Music Video Program - Featuring VIP's 'Manenko'

I have always imagined myself being on some television show talking about Africa, or African music, African development, engineering, etc. After the recent interview with Tracy Pell about BarCamp Diaspora, it seemed I was making headway. On Monday night, KMTP TV (a non-profit public TV station in Palo Alto) aired the first feature of the MIghTy African Music Video Program (MAMVP) thanks to Melanie Reynard, a producer there. The MAMVP will feature me talking about various African music videos, the artistes behind them, discussing the song and music, etc. All these videos are by Phamous People. The first video in the series is Manenko by VIP. You can see the video below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS8jWZdbtI4


The opening music was by Jonathan Ford and the video was edited by Melanie Reynard. I love this video so much that I have been watching it over and over again. I like how she combined the conversation we had with the video. I loved this interview, it took a while to shoot it, and I had to figure out the intricacies involved with being on camera. Melanie was concerned about the background we used for the video and hopefully we can get better backgrounds next time. I made sure to wear this particular shirt which has the "Mate, masie" (What I hear I keep) adinkra symbol. This symbol is part of the Museke.com logo. We shot it once with me doing all the talking but obviously, the interview style worked much better. I spoke a little slowly but still couldn't get by without using 'like like' and 'yea yea'. At least, I didn't gbaa. I felt like I was talking like Obama :-) Next time, I'll do it better. Compared to that BarCamp Diaspora video, this one is much clearer and it has that same 'fantastic' voice lol.

We needed high quality videos for this music video series and I own a number of music videos sent to me by Phamous People themselves. The videos are a little old, they were done in 2007 and so are not current. In this Manenko segment, I talked a little bit about VIP (Vision in Progress), the message in the song, the history of hip-life, the use of Twi and English, and the music video itself. All the music videos slotted for use were directed by Phamous People; and mostly from Ghana. If I get in touch with some other African music video producers, we'll have more videos from outside Ghana featured.

I'll be doing more episodes of the MIghTy African Music Video program on KMTP TV and segments will be accessible on YouTube as well. After working on Museke, this is a next step and we don't really know what is next. It's a little interesting seeing my face on television/youtube, since I like the anonymity of pseudonyms, etc. The last time I was on TV, I was on Ghana's NET2 news segment for 30 seconds talking the Ghana election. Before that, I was on GTV losing on National TV in the Kiddie Quiz. Sad. So let me enjoy this positive experience of the MAMVP and best believe, there's more to come.

Comments

ImageNations said…
good job man! doing a good job
MIghTy African said…
thanks man. We try we try.
Opeekay said…
Ato... Well done.. good job. excellent.. keep it up.. you left me smiling..
Aww, so proud. More to come, I tell ya. More to come.
Mike said…
That was you?? Big up!
I happened to see the last few minutes on KMTP and started texting folx to watch the hiplife docu. but it was too late.
Sankofa said…
This was really good! Keep up the good work

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