BY IKENNA OBIOHA
Legacy is what makes legends, and Michael Jackson left quite a number of legacies in his lifetime to keep his name afloat in contemporary pop culture scene for decades to come.
Olamide aka baddo is miles away from mainstream American pop music, but this doesn’t stop him from being inspired by the King of Pop. In his latest effort, Woske, whose visuals was released on February 8 and has already scooped up over 700,000 views on YouTube sees him serving early 90’s nostalgia .
Woske is a midtempo, groovy afro song with elements of pop in its instrumentation. With its repetitive chorus structure, Olamide manages to build a fairly catchy tune that doesn’t necessarily match the gusto of his previous anthems. If anything, it’s a safe effort that wouldn’t gain attention within the circle of afrobeat lovers. While the song is a fairly enjoyable one, the video is gripping.
Channeling the saloon themed visuals for Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal , Olamide reincarnates the entire set of the video that thrilled audiences around the world 30 years ago. Dressed in a white suit ensemble that sports yellow accents on the arm region, and a matching white hat to go with, he reimagines Jackson’s classic immaculate look, and it doesn’t stop there. The set’s vision of night life in a tavern as portrayed in Smooth Criminal is reproduced in a more modern nightclub setting that is a stark contrast to the former but manages to bloom in the resplendence of 80’s fashion glory.
Understandably, reproducing Jackson’s moves would be an almost impossible task for the Bobo singer to pull off in his plump frame. However, he manages to draw essence from popular dance moves native to the Nigerian crowd in a group choreography.
The visuals for Woske is a far cry from the technical ingenuity that defines Smooth Criminal in terms of choreography, and lyrical structure and content, but what Olamide actually does well is imbibing influences into his visuals and holding his own by superimposing with his own style of music and local African influences.
He doesn’t try to directly sample Smooth Criminal instrumentation-wise –a move that would be a bit inauthentic considering his style of music– or launch into a chaos of reproducing exact same dance moves. His approach only projects his love for Jackson, and Woske is his own way of paying homage to the late king of Pop.
