Artistes who shoot obscene videos lack creativity – Cally Ikpe

As much as obscenity and nudity is paramount in most music videos in Nigeria, music entrepreneur, Cally Ikpe, has condemned such videos saying artistes who shoot those videos lack creativity.

According to Ikpe, people who celebrate obscenity only try  to hide under that to escape from their lack of imagination and talent.

Ikpe, the brain behind the Nigeria Music Video Awards, said such videos are automatically disqualified and don’t get any nomination in any category in the award.

“We campaign against such. If your video is in that category, it automatically disqualifies from entering for NMVA. You cannot offend people’s sensibilities. It is forbidden for a video that is obscene to earn a nomination. If it is done, then it is regrettable. We frown at what Nigeria frowns at. What the regulatory body doesn’t support, we don’t support it.”

Having been into the music award for seven years, Ikpe confessed that some Nigerian artistes try to lobby him in order to win an award.

“Some artistes directly come to me while some come indirectly for me to help them influence the award. They go through their managers. People believe that everything in Nigeria can be manipulated. What makes you think I can really influence the awards? It is a wrong notion. If an award organiser decides to choose the part of dishonour, he will regret it eventually.”

Giving the reason why he wouldn’t consider manipulating the award, Ikpe said, “There won’t be any amount of money that will erase the impression that people pay for the awards. If I sit back and watch the awards ceremony years later, I wouldn’t even have respect for who picked up the award. I would have done a great disservice to them. I have credible people as judges. These are people you cannot intimidate.

“I wouldn’t want to lose credibility. I want people to rely on me. That is the reason I feel insulted when people come to me to tell me that they want to win the award this year. If I knew I would influence the award, then why would I need the judges? That is why people won’t respect us as Nigerians.”

Granted that his NMVA is in its seventh year, some other awards have come up and Ikpe feels it is good for the music industry.

“It checks complacency. If you know  that some other awards are coming up to challenge your award then you sit up. But some awards come up for different reasons and purposes. If your reason is because of the money you want to make, before long, you will be exposed. A lot of awards have come up while some have also packed up.”

His award has not been without its share of controversies, the recent being the visible absence of Psquare’s video in any category.

However, in defence to that, Ikpe said the artistes requested they should be exempted from any award.

“I personally like PSquare and they have good videos. It is not my fault that they weren’t nominated in any category this year. For some reasons best known to them, the artistes said they wanted to be excused from any award this year. We were only respecting their decisions,” he said.