DRAMA AS MI LAUNCHES HIS MOVIE – MI2

Like the action movie that he launched, bits of drama punctuated the entire evening which began almost three hours behind schedule. Everyone- well, nearly every entertainment buff, gathered at the Silverbird cinema Lagos, venue of the premiere waiting to watch Nigeria’s new Denzel debut.

Close to 300 people squeezed into the hall with popular faces like Wande Coal joining others to sit on the arm rest as all seats were taken. Cameras, light and lots of blue carry bags embossed by Nokia littered the hall.

And then the actor- MI steps on stage only with an intro that we all are actors in real life and life itself is like a script- hence MI 2, the movie. With short clips shown before every performance, MI summarised his movie chapters which he rapped through the night assisted by artistes who made cameos on the album.

A lot of people were bought over by the tale that the rapper, MI (born Jude Abaga) was quitting music for movies and so sought desperately to watch ‘the movie’ premiere.

The cinema Hall 4 choice of venue did help matters as it heightened expectations as to what character MI would play in his own movie. A few others were convinced that the movie would remain in the cinema for a number of weeks and so decided to save the N10, 000 per ticket premiere and watch the same movie for less at a later date.

Some others who had bought the album released a day before the premiere knew that ‘MI2- the movie’ was simply a song album and so predicted that the night would be filled with new videos all shot for selected tracks on the album. But nobody guessed right (at least none of all these people). It was simply an album launch hosted in a cinema hall.

Chocolate City label boss- Audu Maikori, Timaya, Tolu and Praise (both of Project Fame Academy), Waje, Omawunmi, Jedi, Wande Coal, Kel, Brymo, Ice Prince, Jesse Jagz, Audu Maikori, Iyanya, Lami, Bez, Sound sultan, Frank Edoho, D’ Prince, Naeto C, DJ Zeez, Yaw, D’jinee, lots of media personnel and many others.

Alaba muscles on parade
Hate them or love them, Alaba reps were in the hall and I bet they were more important than all of us put together.

For the first time, a Nigerian artiste came clean and clear on the financial value of his album. “This is not to prove any point. It’s only to inspire someone that we’re doing this. Mr Abhu can you step up please,” said M.I. And with that little intro, CEO Abhu Ventures, a strong force in the  Alaba ‘conglomerate’ presented a N20million cheque to M.I in exchange for distribution rights to MI2 throughout West Africa

The movie
MI2 is simply the fiction and expression of realities celebrities face. Using his experiences as yardstick and sampling a few other colleagues who made contributions, MI2 is broken into three basic parts: the beginning (where all is rosy for the actor), the middle (when beef arises because of the actor’s success) and the end (where the actor overcomes against all odds).

Track titles or movie chapters (the choice is yours what you call it) include: Action Film, Slow down, Number one, Anybody, Nobody, Beef, Wild wild west, My head my belle, One Naira, Craze, Undisputed, Epic, Imperfect Me, Represent and Unstoppable.

Cameos are made by Brymo, Flavor, Timaya, Loose Kanyon, 2Face, Waje, Choc Boiz and Praise among others. It’s produced by seven different producers. He brings in traditional High Life in two tracks with a special Igbo rendition done by Noble Igwe.