By Osagie Alonge
In October 2013, NET ran an exposé on music video director Moe Musa jacking off a video concept to shoot a music video for Davido‘s hit song ‘Skelewu‘. We went as far as labelling him a ‘creative thief‘. Well, we’ve spotted another offender and this person’s crime is way more heinous than Musa’s.
It’s none other than video director Clarence Peters, whom we’ve caught not only jacking off concepts for his video shoots but toying with copyright infringement and intellectual property theft on an international level.
Clarence is by far the most prominent and consistent music video director Nigeria has ever produced. This man has shot close to 500 music videos, right from his starting days with DJ Tee at ‘The Alliance‘ to setting up his own CAPital Dreams production outfit. Who hasn’t Clarence clicked the record button at?
But he must have been too busy to create an original concept for Ice Prince‘s ‘VIP‘ music video, which was released via YouTube on June 21, 2013. The video, which was shot and directed by Clarence Peters, is a total rip-off of US rap group SlaughterHouse‘s video ‘My life‘ feat Cee Lo Green (released a year earlier on June 20, 2012). Not only does Clarence Peters shamelessly copy the major highlights of the video, he goes ahead to steal footage and implement them in Ice Prince’s video.
If this was done without SlaughterHouse’s permission, Clarence’s action puts Ice Prince and his record label Chocolate City in BIG trouble. Ice and Choc City should ask him for a refund, they’ll need it if/when Interscope Records (SlaughterHouse’s parent record label) comes knocking with a lawsuit.
NET reached out to Chocolate City over the ‘swagger jacking’, however, the label’s rep has not responded to our enquires. Clarence Peters’ team also decided to remain silent when NET reached them.
Meanwhile, a few weeks ago, South African rapper Tumi Molekane accused Clarence Peters of stealing the concept of his music video ‘Asinamali‘ to shoot Tiwa Savage‘s ‘Eminado‘ music video. The latter was almost a carbon copy of the former.
Check out the screenshots from Ice Prince’s video, compare them with the ‘original version’ from SlaughterHouse’ and tell us what you think…
CLARENCE PETERS STEALS VIDEO CONCEPTS
CLARENCE PETERS STEALS VIDEO FOOTAGE
Watch SlaughterHouse ‘My life’ feat Cee Lo Green
Watch Ice Prince ‘VIP’
Watch Tumi’s ‘Asinamali’
Watch Tiwa Savage’s ‘Eminado’ feat Don Jazzy
6 comments
clarence just disgraced me. i’m no longer a fan.
See who’s talking? Like you never copied anything in school or life…
philip, imagine d most brilliant kid in ur school ended up bein a crook and a fraud who “copied” his way to d top. would u b as proud of his achievements? please lets encourage hardwork and not secondary-school-style dubbing
Thats a cool hit lawsuit that would dry up ice prince and peters of all their cash this would teach all a good lesson to quit stealing.
Very Nice! They should go as far back as censoring all of their past videos. I am so sure they would still find more in those dark closets of theirs. All concepts copied!. They can’t even think for once for “originality”. chei! Shame! Their carrier just went crashing into the rocks! LIVE! I like that. This should serve as a lesson to others. I am in total support they should be used as an example. They should scrutinize down to their “beats…” cos we know they are also not “original!”.
Sickening.