SOUTH AFRICA—On a Sunday morning, in Troyeville, Johannesburg, the Ghanaian rapper, M.anifestshot scenes from a video for an unreleased song, which is a collaboration between him and the South African house band MiCasa.
The song, called, “Be My Woman," is catchy – with an infectious hook from MiCasa's lead singer, J'Something. It was recorded a few months prior—the artists exchanged files back and forth over email until they were satisfied.
The video was shot by the film company Callback Dreams. The video's director Makere Thekiso has a lot of great things to say about working with M.anifest, as he has worked with him before on a yet-to-be-released short film shot in Ghana. “The beautiful thing about working with M.anifest is that you get to try different things. He is down for whatever. I will even shoot his music videos for free. I love his music, and also, he's always willing to be creative."
The concept of the video is that the protagonist, played by Itumeleng Modise, is waking up in her house, and preparing to go see a M.anifest and MiCasa performance. But she is in a dreamy world, in which M.anifest keeps appearing, but he doesn't see her.
“It's the first time I'm directing a narrative video, where the lead character (not the artist) has to carry the video. I'm a fan of music videos that don't rely too much on performances, but cutaways and beautiful shots," says Thekiso. “The biggest challenge is how to make those scenes powerful. Like if you watch a Beyoncé video, even if she's by herself, she will carry it."
The video shoot went as planned. Trouble began when the scenes with MiCasa were being shot in Yeoville, a densely populated small town in Johannesburg. Fans rushed to take selfies with J'Something, and wanted be on camera.
The video currently has no release date, but, we give you a behind the scenes look at the video shoot, below.
