5 reasons why you should watch Olamide's new music video

After changing his hairstyle one more time and signing on two young artistes off the streets, Olamide, this week, released the much-anticipated visuals for the “Science Student” video.

A cursory look at the runtime may have you confused as to what it really is, but in just under eight minutes, with creative direction from Kaffy, Olamide attempts to bring the hit song to life.

Opinions are divided as to whether it was a sweet score or a very wide miss. Here are 5 reasons why you should watch Olamide’s Science Student video, just so you can find out for yourself.

(1) Olamide uses symbols to represent common ideas:

After being accused of promoting drug culture, there was always the risk that the video would veer too closely to depicting actual drug use in a bid to keep things real. The video’s creators dodged this bullet by using symbolism in an appropriate manner.

Drug addicts who are the subject of the song a la “Science Student” are depicted as mindless zombies.

In the scene where Olamide walks into the seemingly abandoned building, he sees zombies working with bunsen burners, mixing flasks and other tools that allude to scientific research but also make it clear that this is drug addicts making various harmful cocktails out of different drugs.

(2) The pop culture references are numerous:

Trust Olamide to keep it real for himself and the streets he speaks so fondly. The Science Student video is filled with pop culture references that you may have noticed but struggled to place.

In the first few scenes, for instance, when his car breaks down, Olamide’s associate attempts to fill the car’s tank from an old fuel machine which turns out to be faulty.

ALSO READ: Banning 'Science Student" won't have Nigeria's growing drug problem

Veterans of road travel in Nigeria will recognise that fuel machine as a model from the 90s that is common in stations in smaller towns.

Also, Olamide is led into the zombie’s den by a woman carrying plastic bottles on her head.

In Lagos, particularly on the mainland, and in south-western states, alcoholic herbal drinks are sold in this manner by women who walk in the sun advertising healing and intoxication at the bottom of a cup.

(3) This is Michael Jackson’s Thriller made for Lagos:

One of the first things anyone would notice from the teaser for Olamide’s “Science Student”was that it brought up memories of a very famous music video from before most of us were even kids.

That video is Michael Jackson’s "Thriller", a 14-minute horror-themed music video for the song of the same name, released on December 2, 1983.

The video is seen as the most influential pop music video of all time and has had a profound effect on pop culture and the direction and quality of music videos since.

The full video for Science Student shows that the video’s creators drew inspiration from John Singleton’s masterpiece.

After Olamide tries to avoid the zombies much like Michael Jackson in Thriller, he becomes one of them. He then goes on to lead them in a furious dance routine, again like Thriller.

At a point during this routine, you can even hear a deep grunt that reminds you of a similar sound in MJ’s Thriller.

(4) The "Science Student" video is a massive production:

Over the course of 7 minutes and 35 seconds, Olamide calls on himself, three of his label associates, fellow artiste, Lamboginny, dancer Kaffy, and a team of over 20 dancers to create a music video that merges filmmaking with music, much like its inspiration.

That’s not counting the men behind the scenes, costumiers, production assistants, directors and more. If nothing, it shows how much effort the artiste was willing to put into making something of note.

In an industry where it is too common to see well-packaged mediocrity, it is a win for the artiste and fans who believe they deserve much more.

(5) Olamide manages to discourage drug abuse :

As we noted earlier, Olamide was first criticised for using his song to promote drug abuse with vivid references to commonly abused drugs.

Even after he denounced such claims and stated his intent to draw attention to the problem, the onus and pressure were still on him to prove otherwise.

ALSO READ: These are all the drugs influencing Nigerian music in 2018

While the video may have focused more on the theatrical than much else, Olamide managed to maintain his intent to discourage drug use in spurts.

On the walls of the zombie den where he spends the first half of the video, there are warnings written on the wall. At the end of the video, a message is written “BE SMART. DON’T START. CHOOSE TO REFUSE. BE ABOVE THE INFLUENCE. #SAYNOTODRUGS”.

Perhaps, the most prominent delivery of this message is in depicting the drug users as zombies. Drug use is often glorified in music and pop culture, but by depicting extreme addiction in such a manner, Olamide shows the oft-ignored other side of the coin.