Beyond the ranking
A year-end list of Nigerian music video directors can identify prominent names, but it cannot settle who was “best.” Directors work across different budgets, genres and audiences; credits are not always consistently published; and the finished clip reflects the labour of cinematographers, editors, choreographers, designers, stylists, performers and production crews. A more revealing question is what kinds of images directors made possible for Nigerian music in 2018.
The names being discussed at the end of the year show both continuity and change. A December 24 overview from Lists.ng selected Clarence Peters, Unlimited LA, Aje, Paul Gambit and Sesan. Its order is a matter of editorial taste, and its unsourced fee estimates should not be treated as established fact. The selection is nevertheless a useful period document: veteran directors remained central even as newer and internationally mobile filmmakers acquired recognisable signatures of their own.
What connected this varied field was the growing importance of the screen. A video could introduce a song on television, turn its dance into a repeatable gesture, supply imagery for social media and give international viewers their first encounter with an artist. YouTube’s own November profile of Burna Boy described how the platform had become integral to his development and reported that “Ye” had exceeded 3.5 million views there by that point. The same profile treated the video’s global mixture of visual references and its Nigerian grounding as part of the record’s appeal. YouTube for Artists’ contemporary Burna Boy profile
The director credit therefore belonged inside the music story, not beneath it.
Clarence Peters and the scale of repetition
Clarence Peters entered 2018 with an established position in Nigerian video production. His importance that year is best demonstrated by output rather than an unverifiable price tag or sweeping claim about rank. In September, The NET credited him with seven prominent videos released during the year: “Soco,” “Lova Lova,” “Fake Love,” “Diet,” “Ye,” “Bobo” and “Ah Blem Blem.” The NET’s contemporaneous credit roundup
That list cuts across artists and moods, yet the work repeatedly solves the same fundamental problem: how to organise a star’s presence so that a song remains legible on a small screen. A close-up can turn a lyric into an expression; dancers can translate percussion into movement; a prop, costume or coloured light can give a hook a durable visual association. Narrative is only one option. Performance itself can be shaped into an event.
Burna Boy’s “Ye,” uploaded to his official artist channel on August 6, offers a clear example. Its low camera angles, circling movement, neon-lit interiors and mural of Fela Kuti create a space that feels at once theatrical and connected to musical lineage. Burna Boy remains the organising presence, moving through a set whose references are dense without overwhelming the performance. Burna Boy’s official “Ye” video
Peters’ volume also reveals the industrial side of authorship. Seven visible releases require more than inspiration: they require treatments, schedules, crews, locations, post-production and the ability to deliver while several artist campaigns are moving at once. A director operating at that frequency helps establish the visual grammar of an entire season, even when no two clips are identical.
Unlimited LA and the value of artistic relationships
Unlimited LA represented another durable route through the Lagos production system. His 2018 work included videos for Olamide, an association that was not merely a sequence of isolated bookings. In a September report based on his HipTV interview, Unlimited LA explained that he and Olamide had known each other since the artist’s Coded Tunes period and continued collaborating without a contract because they enjoyed working together. In the same interview, he rejected the idea that he was competing with Peters and emphasised Peters’ greater experience. TheCable Lifestyle’s September 2018 report
That account illuminates something rankings tend to miss. Repeated collaboration lets a director learn an artist’s performance habits, humour, audience and preferred balance between polish and immediacy. The resulting fluency can be as important as an expensive location. By 2018, Unlimited LA’s association with Olamide was visible in releases including “Motigbana”; a later industry overview also attributes “Amaka,” “Motigbana” and “Wo” to him when summarising his work during the year. NotJustOk’s director overview
The collaboration also demonstrates why “house style” can be misleading. Directors do have preferences, but they are interpreting songs and performers rather than stamping every commission with one identical look. The most useful signature may be an ability to understand the artist quickly: when to foreground choreography, when to build a comic premise and when a direct performance will carry the record.
Sesan’s presence in the December discussion supplied a longer historical perspective. Years before 2018, he had directed D’banj’s “Mr Endowed” remix with Snoop Dogg in Los Angeles, a production documented while it was being filmed in January 2011. BellaNaija’s report from the “Mr Endowed” remix shoot That earlier project shows that international production and ambition did not suddenly arrive with the latest wave of Afropop attention. The 2018 scene inherited years of experimentation with cross-border collaborators, locations and distribution.
Daps, Meji Alabi and a prize for visual authorship
The 12th Headies made the director’s authorship unusually explicit. At the May 5 ceremony, Daps won Best Music Video for Wizkid’s “Come Closer.” The category also included two Daps credits and three Meji Alabi credits, alongside Clarence Peters: “Like Dat” for Daps; “Ma Lo,” “Been Calling” and “Yolo” for Alabi; and “Focus” for Peters. The Guardian Nigeria’s complete Headies results
That ballot captured a visual field extending beyond one city or production model. Daps’ “Come Closer” had arrived in 2017 as part of a major Wizkid and Drake collaboration, but its imagery did not depend on placing both recording stars in the frame. The FADER identified Daps as director, noted Drake’s absence from the clip and described the emphasis on dancers and references to Wizkid’s African heritage. The FADER’s release report The choice kept Wizkid, movement and styling at the centre rather than treating a missing guest cameo as a fatal limitation.
Meji Alabi’s three nominations are equally telling. A March 2018 appraisal connected him with videos for Tiwa Savage, Maleek Berry, Asa and Seyi Shay, identifying “Ma Lo,” “Been Calling” and “Yolo” among his notable work. 36NG’s contemporaneous Meji Alabi retrospective His work could be polished and fashion-conscious without making performers feel like accessories to the set.
By November, Alabi had also directed Burna Boy’s “On the Low.” The official upload appeared on November 16, while the music-video trade publication Promonews credited Alabi and highlighted the long, sweeping takes used to trace a relationship through time. Burna Boy’s official upload, Promonews’ production credit Where “Ye” builds a concentrated performance world, “On the Low” uses fluid camera movement and romantic progression. The contrast is a reminder that even one artist can require distinct directorial solutions within the same year.
The Headies result did not prove that one filmmaker possessed the year’s only correct visual language. It did something more valuable: it named directors alongside their work and allowed viewers to see recurring authorship across different artists.
Prodigeezy and the video as an argument
Falz’s “This Is Nigeria” demonstrated the form’s capacity for political staging. His official artist channel published the video on May 25 and credits Iyobosa “Geezy” Rehoboth, also known as Prodigeezy, as director and Wande Thomas as producer. Falz’s official “This Is Nigeria” upload
The video’s debt to Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” is acknowledged in the official description, but its scenes are directed toward Nigerian subjects. Falz moves through a warehouse as episodes involving violence, policing, religious hypocrisy, drug use and unreliable electricity unfold around him. The performance is not separated from the argument: bodies, props, background action and the timing of each reveal carry meanings that the audio alone cannot deliver in the same way.
Prodigeezy’s account of the production makes the achievement more concrete. He told Pulse Nigeria that the entire process—from booking to release—took one week, not that the team spent seven days filming. According to the interview, the shoot itself took place on May 24 in an Oregun warehouse, the video was released the following day, and more than 50 people worked on set. He described developing the script after hearing the song, with ideas also coming from Falz. Pulse Nigeria’s May 30 interview with Prodigeezy
Those details expose the coordination hidden inside a short running time. Extras must be positioned, actions timed, visual references made recognisable and camera movement rehearsed. Speed does not erase authorship; it makes planning more consequential.
The public response confirmed that the images mattered. On June 2, Channels Television, carrying an AFP report, said the video had approached three million YouTube views in less than a week and described the strong reaction to its portrayal of Nigerian problems. The report specifically discussed imagery involving the Chibok schoolgirls, police violence, drug use, generators and exploitative pastors. Channels Television’s contemporary report Whatever viewers thought of the adaptation, they were debating a visual construction, not simply a soundtrack.
A credit line worth following
An honest account of Nigerian music video directors in 2018 cannot be reduced to five, ten or fifteen names. The year’s visible field included Peters, Unlimited LA, Aje, Paul Gambit, Sesan, Daps, Meji Alabi and Prodigeezy, while any compact selection will omit working directors and the many crew members whose names rarely enter popular coverage.
Still, paying attention to the director credit changes how the music is understood. Peters’ concentrated run shows the importance of production capacity; Unlimited LA’s relationship with Olamide shows the creative value of trust; Daps and Alabi show how Nigerian visual authorship moved across markets; and Prodigeezy shows how staging can turn a song into public argument.
By the end of 2018, Nigerian pop’s expanding reach was being built through images as well as recordings. The videos did not merely advertise songs after the creative work was complete. At their strongest, they supplied performance, character, memory and interpretation—and the directors responsible deserved to be read as part of the music’s authorship.