Rick Ross & The Wrath Of Nigerians

    There's been a lot of rambling about Rick Ross' 'Hold Me Back' video released recently after his trip to Nigeria. The artiste shot a six-minute video in the Lagos metropolis visiting slums like Makoko and some other insightful locations. Nigerians have been outraged by the manner in which the American artiste has depicted the country. Some celebrities like M.I have lambasted the man for being disrespectful and insensitive. I was thus very eager to watch the video to see how Rick Ross dissed Nigeria and Nigerians. 

    As I watched the video, I smiled because I could relate with the video. The man simply took a camera round Lagos and reported what he saw. How that has suddenly become disrespectful, I do not know. Nobody has been able to tell me exactly what he did wrong apart from the fact that they 'believe' he was arrogant and reported only the bad side of Nigeria and painted us as a poverty-stricken land. Then again I asked, when 75% of the country remain poor, is it not safe to say the country is indeed poverty-stricken?

    Someone lamely argued that Rick Ross should have featured the place he stayed while he was in Nigeria after-all he did not stay in Makoko while he was here so why do a whole video about the slums. While all our Nigerian acts (including M.I) sing about and show Ferraris, Bentleys, Nightclubs and Champagne, a foreigner has come and noticed a strange level of poverty and we are upset with him? Are we in denial or we just hate each other and have unfounded 'biff' for the American rapper?

A few weeks ago, Rick Ross was the darling of Nigerians. He featured on the remix of P-Square's 'Beautiful Onyiye' and the video went viral on YouTube. Many people fell in love with the song all over again because of Rick Ross' presence on the song and video. That video was shot on a boat in some fancy location. I'm guessing Rick Ross after seeing the 'bling-bling' P-Square flaunted and the cost of shooting the video assumed that Nigerians were very rich and comfortable people. Seeing that kind of money in action makes you assume the streets of Lagos are lined with pearls and diamonds. I can then imagine the rude shock the man got when he drove round Lagos and saw Makoko and the other places.

    We must also not forget that he did not beg to come and perform here. Nigerians invited him over and I can only imagine how much Nigerians dangled to lure the man to our malaria-infested tropics. Again, he would have believed we were sneezing out dollar bills here. The tickets to watch him perform sold for N5,000-regular and N500,000 and N1million for tables! The man could not have guessed places like Makoko existed in the same country! We gave him no such impression.

    Nigerians have said he dissed us when he can't do the same in his country. That is a lie! He shot a similar video in New Orleans many weeks before he visited Nigeria. The video is on YouTube too. It is in black and white too. The video features slums, thugs, drugs and other unwholesome parts of New Orleans. Even the lyrics of the song did not change, meaning he actually was not out to speak to us, he just let the images do the talking. The differences in both videos are simply that there were no gun-totting policemen, wandering live goats and hungry children scrambling to collect dollar bills from the rich American. Of course, the maturity of the slums in both locations cannot be compared. We are not their mate!


    It wasn't all bad though. At 2:08, he showed the world our rich cultural heirtage via the traditional dance group he featured in his flick. The man also featured our sound exploits at USA 94 with Siasia and the late Yekini. Does this show disrespect too?

    Nigeria is currently gasping for breath because of our aversion for the truth. We refuse to tell each other the truth and get irritated when foreigners are gracious enough to tell us. It is almost as if we are naturally bitter and belligerent and are quick to tell off anyone who as much as points out our flaws. Rick Ross has not insulted Nigeria. He didn't conjure the images in that video. He came here and met them here. He didn't pay anyone to feature in the video. They were not coerced. It was not staged. It was reality television at its best. It was candid camera. We must be objective and refrain from uttering statements like 'Only Nigerians have the right to abuse Nigerians' as we said when Ghanaians pointed out another bitter truth to us a few weeks back. That's illogical sentiment. 

    I presume the annoyed people are 'progressive' like their Governor. Why would Rick Ross show all that, when 'Lagos is working'. After-all, there are gardens in Marina now and the BRT buses are fast, cheap and efficient! We must stop chasing shadows. Rick Ross is not the enemy of Nigerians. Nigerians are the true enemies of Nigerians.

   By the way, the little boy at 1:15 made me laugh really really hard!