If you were somewhere near a television on Monday anytime after 3 pm, the launch of two new local videos might have held your attention for a little bit. Out of curiosity we tuned in but were unable to stay tuned for a few reasons.
Neither video could be referred to as bad, though, frankly, to call them good would be going too far. We will just call them reasonable attempts and leave it at that. All things considered they did come over as different.
Wildfire Productions which is behind the videos is deserving of some credit for trying to raise the bar. Producer Fojo or Fojoman gets a thumbs-up also for his innovation and the bold steps he took.
Our criticism of the videos has nothing to do with being unsupportive of local music in case the thought crosses someone’s mind. A few things need to be pointed out and that is what we are going to do.
First, a look at “Shake If Off” by Typheon: She is a cutie who is still quite young but surely a hot talent. Her song is easy on the ears and thankfully the video is bearable to watch too. However, there is some difficulty in understanding what she is saying and you can get lost in translation.
In the video she sounds nasal. It is either that or she needs more work on her vocals. One good thing about the launch is that the videos were played several times which helped in figuring out much of the lyrics.
Whether many people know it or not Mariah Carey actually has a song titled “Shake It Off” and though we are making no comparisons here, it is a risk for a local to debut a song with the same title, given how popular Mariah’s song is and how good it is.
Typheon looks poised to blow up if she is given the right amount of support. The dance moves in her video are good and she looks good doing her thing. Unfortunately she was not that good to keep us glued to the television.
Then there is “Rudeboi” by Galiani. We could say so much about this particular video, but will restrict our comments to how poor the taste was. The gangster-like atmosphere which fits into the title is all well and good when it seems believable. Galiani was far from convincing.
To his credit the guy can rap and his song is okay, but spare us the silly scenes about women, booze and pimping. Galiani went through the entire video trying to come over as a ‘Rude boy’ but failed miserably.
Someone who saw the video said he sounded like Lloyd Banks. Well, not exactly, but maybe he could in another few years. It is not impossible because many of the American rappers we see on television are a package. The majority of them have some talent, but nothing special. Yet when they are given the right look, the right people to promote them and the right place to launch everything comes together.
We are particularly pleased that Guyanese music is diversifying and those young singers like Tyhpheon and Galiani are coming out with new material. For far too long we have only had an earful of soca tunes, which is why when Timeka Marshall and Celeste David did their thing we loved them. thestabroekscene@yahoo.com
