‘9ice Scammed Us’ – Video Director Alleges

By Dimeji Ogedengbe

A music video director by the name Chim of VEXEN Studio Rats has alleged that star singer 9ice and his team ripped him off.

NET gathered that 9ice had contracted music director Emeka Obefe to shoot the video for his monster hit ‘Gongo Aso’ back in 2008; while Obefe contracted another professional simply called Chim to film the video for 9ice.

According to Chim who claims to have flown in from Chennai, Madras in India where he was pursuing his Masters degree in Media Technology; he received an advance payment of nine hundred thousand Naira (N900, 000) from Obefe as part payment of a total sum which he pleaded to conceal.

On how much the Alapomeji boss paid Mr. Obefe to shoot the Gongo Aso video, Chim preferred not to disclose the figure as well.

Recounting his regretful involvement with 9ice to NET, Chim noted that his Indian crew members’ visa issuance was delayed by the Nigerian Embassy in India which caused them to depart India aboard Ethiopian Airlines on a Monday in September 2008 after the visas came out earlier that day – as against their initial plans to depart the previous Thursday.

Meanwhile, according to Chim, pressure was mounted on him by the Obefe led-crew back in Nigeria as to why he hadn’t arrived for the shoot.

‘I expected that every other thing for the shoot would have been ready in Nigeria because everybody kept calling when we had that four days delay in India, unfortunately no. We didn’t even begin shoot until two days after we agreed to. So 9ice promised to pay for the extra days. But surprisingly he walked out of the set the night we started shooting again and never came back. I have made up my mind not to ever ask him why he did that, that’s his own bloody business’, Chim tells NET.

The young man further alleged that, Obefe never paid his balance and that 9ice also refused to pay for the extra day that cost him to shoot the video, leaving him with debts and a soiled reputation at the Indian company where he hired the equipment to shoot the video.

He alleged the ‘Gongo Aso‘ video that was eventually released was not the original version he shot, insisting that Afro best, marketer of the video in Nigeria had doctored it.

‘They just picked some parts of the one I shot and they added a few more from God knows where. In fact I still have rushes of the ones I did. I can categorically tell you that 9ice did not pay Beef’s balance, quote me anywhere. He scammed all of us‘, he adds.

Speaking to 9ice’s camp, his manager Dehinde Fajana says nothing of such occurred. ‘My brother, I don’t know any Chim. Whoever he is, it’s between him and Obefe‘, he clearly stated.

Although as at press time Mr. Obefe wasn’t available for comments, the Gongo Aso hit maker’s spokesman insists the Gongo Aso video was shot for two days straight by Emeka Obefe.

‘I negotiated everything; 9ice was never involved in any personal negotiation with anybody. Tell him (Chim) to go and edit the one (video) he shot and show it to us. I’m not ready to waste time on someone that’s looking for cheap fame. Baba God gives fame’.

However, a separate source who claimed to be 9ice’s former choreographer and friend Sunny, confirmed some of Chim’s argument while he refuted others.

He noted; ‘Chim wasn’t the director, Obefe called him in from India when we needed a Celluloid camera to shoot the video. So his role in the shoot was just to bring the camera. He came with a couple of Indian guys who worked at the company that hired out the Celluloid. We paid for their trip and the welfare of the Indians upon arrival off the part-payment from where 9ice was taken care of’.

‘A lot that I can’t say went down. We never got the balance from 9ice; and in the midst of all that Obefe and Chim were robbed on their way to get another camera from Jos, they lost their laptops and other vital things, rapper Modenine was in the same bus that day, but en route to a different destination. We all ran into different debt over that shoot. In fact, Obefe didn’t recover from the loss for a long time. To crown it, 9ice and his team pulled out some scenes and added some to the video Obefe shot which lowered the visual quality of the video’; he explained.

The dancer showed us the alleged original video of Gongo Aso and in comparison with the released version it was far better in picture quality and noticeable were some scenes that were not in the supposed doctored version.

He explained that if not for the sake of peace and future relationship, they could have released their own version at the time the latter was released.