Emeka ‘Blaqbonez’ Akumefule is not a strange name to anyone interested in Nigerian music, comedy or Nigerian Twitter. Primarily a rapper signed to Chocolate City, the quest to push his music to relevance in Nigeria’s crowded industry, especially while backing a less popular horse in rap music, has led him to use unconventional methods of music promotion.
Twitter users will be quick to remember his #streamhaba era. At a time when hiring a Twitter influencer was a popular way to gain publicity, influencers of the social media app had the power to command massive fees in exchange for their services. For Blaqbonez, there isn’t any need to pay for what you can do yourself. And so he took to guerrilla marketing of his new single, popping up in random tweet comments to tell people to #streamhaba. What started out as a one-man crusade soon became a viral sensation, and he eventually had most of Twitter advertising his single on his behalf, even on tweets which had no business with music.
After the release of Sex Over Love, he became the anti-love guy. We remarked in our review about how he became a symbol for the transactional, erotogenic nature of modern relationships. To fit into this persona, he was seen sharing his anti-monogamy doctrine on social media and in interviews and bagging up the merits of casual sex and ‘situationships’. For Blaqbonez, however, that was not enough. He needed to leverage the Sex Over Love brand properly and use it for good commercial use. And that birthed the Sex Over Love crusade. The crusade, which was fixed ironically for Valentine’s eve, was tagged “Breaking the chains of love” and it turned out to be a massive success.
For his latest trick, the ‘Back In Uni’ video, Blaqbonez displays an immense knowledge of marketing ingenuity and trending themes, using them appropriately. First was to perfectly place his conversation with ace director TG Omori, where the latter slapped a quote of $30k to shoot a video for him, on social media. Doctored or not, what mattered was that netizens’ attention had already been watered as they waited to see what Blaqbonez, unable to match TG Omori’s budget, would come up with in his directorial debut.
Then, when the video did come, in only three and a half minutes, Blaqbonez hilariously cosplays twice as many other artistes. First came his take on Wizkid’s ‘Bad To Me’, complete with the black and white aesthetic and flowers. He goes on to recreate Oxlade’s viral ‘Ku Lo Sa’ video, before taking a not-so-subtle dig at Burna Boy after his break-up with Stefflon Don.
Also referenced in the video is Carter Efe, the comedian-turned-singer who was recently in the public eye for his involvement in a spat with Berry Tiga over the percentage split of their single. The reference was intelligently admixed with a clip depicting Portable, with the words “Dem go rip you” displayed to kill two birds with a stone, as both creatives have been involved in monetary split disputes in the past year.
Blaqbonez’s attempt to pull off Asake’s now legendary church scene from the Bandana video is laudable, and his take on Ayra Starr’s Rush is downright hilarious. The funniest clip in the video, however, and the biggest source of controversy, if there is any, is his depiction of the artistes, BNXN and Ruger’s dispute. The video was released to an ovation on social media, and it crossed the one million mark in less than 30 hours. On Twitter and Instagram, Blaqbonez is being hailed as a creative genius and a visionary.
As true as that is, however, there are some who believe the video to be the work of plagiarism. In the hours after it debuted, a US based rapper, Bils, made an Instagram video showing uncanny similarities between Blaqbonez’s latest and the video to his song, “Upcoming Artist”. Bils’ video, which was released on 30th September, shares the common theme of references of other artistes, so there is no doubt as to similarity. What would be much harder to prove is that Blaqbonez actually drew inspiration from his video, but that should not be his primary concern. A better move would be to publicize and leverage on this, with the aim of getting more views for his video and increasing popularity, and knowing Blaqbonez, that’s exactly what he would do in that situation.
As Blaqbonez ramps up for the release of ‘Young Preacher’ in two weeks, we can be sure to expect more marketing gags and publicity tricks for its buildup. Sex Over Love did well for a rap album, with the album itself and its lead single, ‘Bling;, climbing to the top 10 of the respective Apple charts. This time around, Blaqbonez will seek an album strong enough to rub shoulders with pop albums on the charts and finally bring home a much coveted Headies award.