Clarence Peters: The Unsung Hero of the Nigerian Music Industry
What do 2Baba’s ‘Only Me’and ‘Ihe Neme’, Wizkid’s ‘Pakurumo’ and ‘Ojuelegba’, Davido’s ‘Back When’, ‘Dami Duro’ and ‘Aye’, Timaya’s ‘Bum Bum’ and ‘Sexy Ladies’, P-Square’s ‘Alingo’ and ‘Away’, Iyanya’s ‘Ur Waist’, Banky W’s ‘Yes/No’, Flavour’s ‘Ada Ada’, Olamide’s ‘Durosoke’, Phyno’s ‘Man of the Year’, Kcee’s ‘Pull Over’, Camp Mulla’s ‘Party Don’t Stop’, Diamond Platnumz’ ‘Number One (Remix)’, Yemi Alade’s ‘Johnny’ and Runtown’s ‘Gallardo’ all have in common?
Apart from being mega smash hits across the African continent and beyond, every single one of these songs had their music videos come to an end with the all-too-familiar “Clarence Shot It”, meaning they were all directed by the same man.
Clarence Abiodun Peters is a Nigerian music video director and cinematographer, who is also the founder and CEO of Capital Dream Pictures (a production company that specializes in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video) and Capital Hill Records (the record label that’s home to, Tha Suspect, Illbliss and formerly Chidinma).
Over the two-decade span of his brilliant career, Clarence Peters has carved an enviable, well-deserved niche for himself as one of Africa’s most celebrated filmmakers.
Kicking off his exciting career way back in 1998 with his involvement in a Mobil-sponsored music video for a documentary on AIDS, Clarence – who was born into prominence, being the son of veteran Nigerian Jùjú musician, Sir Shina Peters, and ace Nigerian actress, Clarion Chukwura – has gone on to establish himself as a well-rounded video director.
Having directed 40 episodes of the TV series ‘Everyday People’, in addition to a good number of documentaries, TV commercials, short films, and TV features, Clarence made his movie debut in 2015 with a 26-minute horror film titled Hex (an effort that earned him the highly coveted prize for Best Short Film at the 5th Africa International Film Festival).
The multiple-award-winning video director is however best known for directing music videos for top artistes in the Nigerian music scene and beyond. The talented filmmaker notable shot the music video for one of MTV Shuga’s theme songs ‘Love, Sex and Money’ which was recorded by Banky W, Bon’Eye, L-Tido and Wizkid. But that’s not even the half of it.
From 9ice’s ‘Street Credibility’ to Omawumi’s ‘In The Music’ to J. Martins ‘Oyoyo’ to Sound Sultan’s ‘Very Good Bad Guy’ to May D’s ‘Soundtrack’ to Bez’s ‘That Stupid Song’ to Naeto C’s ‘5 & 6’ to Waje’s ‘So Inspired’ and ‘I Wish’ to Chidinma’s ‘Kedike’ and ‘Emi Ni Baller’ to Burna Boy’s ‘Run My Race’, and ‘Yawa Dey’, to Falz ‘Baby Boy’ and ‘Wehdone Sir’, to Tiwa Savage’s ‘Eminado’, Clarence has shot ‘em all and more.
Everybody knows that every great song deserves a befitting music video. In fact, many songs that have gone on to become major industry shakers were only able to achieve such feats because we simply couldn’t get over their spectacular music videos.
Clarence – the multi-award-winning video director who has been honoured by far and wide, even by Absolut Vodka for his creativity – apparently understands just how important it is for our favourite artistes to have remarkable accompanying videos for their masterpieces, and he meets this need seamlessly.
The gifted Cinematography graduate of Cape Town’s City Varsity has continued to up to up the ante with each new music video he directs.
Clarence has particularly outdone himself on his recent projects such as Niniola’s ‘Sicker’, ‘Saro’ and ‘Oyin’, Sarz’ ‘Get Up’, Vanessa Mdee’s ‘Kisela’, Falz ‘La Fête’, Sauti Sol’s ‘Melanin’, Patoranking’s ‘Available’, and Davido’s sizzling ‘Flora My Flawa’, consequently contributing, in no small measure, to the massive success each of these songs have recorded and thus earned the recording artistes.
Does the video director with the Midas touch get his due credit? He gets recognized no doubt, just not nearly as much as we think he deserves.
In an industry that’s blessed with a myriad of talented music video directors who have created fantastic visuals for some of our favourite songs, no one stands out quite like Clarence Peters whose hard work, dedication, versatility, consistency and sheer creative genius have set him apart and made him arguably the most sought after music director in Nigeria.
Watch some interesting interview, documentary and news videos about him below:
One of Nigerian fast rising music video director is director J. Whenever you see Director J on your TV screen, it’s an Joseph King popularly known as Director J-shot video.
In recent times he has directed quite a number of videos for Nigerian music superstars as IYO, harmonise and Diamond Plantinum. The most recent of Director J’s works is IYO’s ‘Nakupenda’ video that was shot in November 2017. The director chose an appropriate location for the video shoot and created great montages to portray the image of a luxurious life.
Director J-shot videos appear very simple and cost-efficient yet the content of songs are well-interpreted into good visuals. I strongly believe that soon his creativity will push the fast-rising director to a higher level.