10 Top Nigeria Music Directors Currently Shaking the Music Industry in Nigeria in 2023 – WITHIN NIGERIA — PIECE
10 Top Nigeria Music Directors Currently Shaking the Music Industry in Nigeria in 2023
Music in Nigeria is one of the country’s biggest industries, not just locally but globally. Video directors are no doubt indispensable in the music and entertainment industry.
The music videos that we see and love are products of the hard work, time and energy put in by music directors. Music directors are vital to the Nigerian entertainment industry and deserve accolades for their effort. While top video directors like Clarence Peters, Ada Cookey, Akin Alabi, Moe Musa and Unlimited LA have become household names, a new wave of talented music video directors are emerging and crafting highly creative videos.
These are the top 10 young Nigerian Music directors making waves right now in the Nigerian Music Industry.
ThankGod Omori Jesam, professionally known as TG Omori is a Nigerian music video director and cinematographer. The Cross River bred, who is also known as ‘boy director’ grew up in Agungi, Lagos . has directed several music videos in Nigeria for many of Nigeria’s top acts. He started directing at 15 while overseeing stage plays in his school and church. At 18, he went professional in the craft after graduating from Pencil Film Institute, making him the youngest professional filmmaker in Nigeria at the time. After a great rise, the amazing and intelligent video director has become the most sought after director in Nigeria. In 2019, TG Omori was responsible for almost half of the videos on the summer 2019 charts Countdown on MTV, Soundcity, and Trace. Arguably the biggest Nigerian music director right now, TG’s reputation in the music video industry seems to grow bigger with every release.
His experience and skills in filmography is dominated by music videos that give the songs a good run for their money. He has directed most of Ololade Asake’s music videos including “Sungba”, “Peace be Unto You Video “,”Joha “, etc. He also did some jobs which included Fireboy DML’s “Playboy” video, Rema’s “Are You There?” video, Naira Marley’s “Am I a Yahoo boy” and Kizz Daniel’s “BUGA” video, to mention a few.
In 2021, a video for the North African remix featuring ElGrande Toto was released on 4 November 2021. It was shot in Lagos and was directed by TG Omori, it surpassed 34 million views after a month of release on YouTube
Apart from cinematography, TG Omori is also a fashion model. He is known for his different style of fashion and is never ashamed to show off his lifestyle.
Meji Alabi is a London-born Nigerian filmmaker, director, photographer and producer. The renowned Grammy Award-winning Nigerian/British director has worked alongside Beyonce, Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido, Tiwa Savage, Popcaan, Goldlink, Koffee and Nasty C. He was born on the 13th of December 1988 in London.
Meiji Alabi’s skills were noticed when he directed the music video for ‘Murda’ performed by Seyi Shay featuring Patoranking, Shaydee in 2014. The success of this video gave him much attention in the Nigerian music industry and it was nominated in the same year at the MTV Africa Music Awards for Best Video.
Meji Alabi also worked with Wizkid on the Made in Lagos album, and holds directing credits for the music videos for Ginger featuring Burna Boy, No Stress and Smile featuring H.E.R. Since 2018, Meji Alabi has worked with Burna Boy on some of his projects.
In 2020, Meji Alabi served as a producer alongside Jimi Adesanya for the Nigerian footage for the Black Is King visual project executively produced by Beyonce Knowles-Carter. He also worked alongside Ibra Ake and Jenn Nkiru to execute the Grammy Award-winning ‘Brown Skin Girl’ music video for which he was credited as co-director.
Meji Alabi graduated from the University of West London with a first-class summa cum laude distinction in accounting and finance, and also holds a Licensed Vocational Nursing degree from St. Phillips College in San Antonio, Texas.
Aremu Olaiwola Qudus, professionally known as Director K or DK is a Nigerian music video director. He was born on 13 November 1993, in Lagos State, Nigeria into a polygamous home. Director K has worked with great artists in the music industry such as Wizkid, Skepta, Davido, Burna Boy and many others.
Director K began his career back in 2015 when he shot a music video out of curiosity with an iPhone. His career continued to grow such that by 2018, he had done a music video for Teni’s hit song, Case, followed by directing the music video for Skiibii hit single Sensima.
In 2019, he co-founded PriorGold Pictures media and production services company. His creative work didn’t go unnoticed as he won the best music video of the year at the 2020 Headies Award for the song, “1 Milli” by Davido.
In 2021 Director K directed the Grammy nominated hit ‘Essence’ by Wizkid featuring Tems, the first African song to chart the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard Global 200. Some of his works with artistes in 2022 include the video directing of Black Sherif’s “Second Sermon” featuring Burna Boy. He was also in charge of the music directing of Kizz Daniel’s “Odo” video, “Balloon D’or” by Burna Boy as well as Wizkid + Rema’s “Calm Down” video.
Oladapo Fagbenle, popularly known as Daps in the music industry, is a Nigerian-born British artist, and video director. He is best known for directing music videos for international artists such as Migos, Stormzy, Iggy Azalea, Kendrick Lamar, Willie Xo, Wizkid, 2 Chainz and Davido.
Daps began his video production career in the fall of 2010 and began directing music videos in 2013. In 2016 he directed the video for “Bad and Boujee” for the Migos which went on to become a US number 1 and generated hundreds of millions of views. One of the videos he directed for Migos has been viewed over 67 million times on YouTube.
DAPS is also a former National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athlete. Daps is also a sibling to popular British actor, O. T. Fagbenle; video producer, Luti Fagbenle, and basketball player, Temi Fagbenle. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
Apampa Owolabi Oluwadamilola, professionally known as Dammy Twitch is a professional video director in Nigeria. He has directed great videos for great artistes , but he is best known for the music video of Zlatan Ibile’s Zanku. He also directed Davido’s “Stand Strong” featuring The Samples, and Naira Marley’s “Montego Bay video.”
Having begun in photography with a little knowledge in video editing, he got to do some work with Director Q as an editor in 2017. By the end of 2017, he kicked off his career in music video production with his personal brand. He went with the insignia – Visuals by Twitch in Davido’s Aje, but his brand name is Polar Films which is a larger company that owns D-Twitch.
The first music video he shot was for Burna Boy and Yonda in 2017. That same year, he shot Davido’s music video for ‘Aje’ in Senegal. So far he has worked with quite a number of artists – Falz, Burnaboy, Olamide, Dremo, Lil Kesh, Victor AD, Preto Show (Angola), Perruzi, Mayorkun and more. He directed the recent Hennessy Cypher 2022 which featured M.I Abaga, Vector and some other African rappers. Twitch was also among Forbes 30 under 30 list of 2021
Dammy Twitch was born on the 27th of October, 1995 in Oyo State before moving to Lagos State. Dammy graduated from Redeemer’s University, with a degree in Economics. He completed his National Youth Service Corp program in December 2017.
This director is incredible, not because of her creative work but because of her rise in a male dominated industry, and also the youngest on this list. 23 year old Praise Onyeagwalam popularly known as Director Pink is a female cinematographer who has done some incredible job in music video directing in Nigeria. She runs an all-female production company, Pinkline Films.
According to her, she started video directing in her mid teenage age in church. At that time, she was also into graphics design, and motion graphics. She met Edem Victor, a cinematographer who directs skit production for Mr Macaroni , MC Lively, etc, to learn more about the craft. Apart from going on set, she attributed 90% of what she knows to what she learned online – YouTube, Udemy, all other platforms. She also learned from another music director, The Alien.
Director K is new to the industry but directed some songs such as Chike’s If You No Love remix with Mayorkun. She also directed the visuals of Chike’s Running to You with Simi which ranked as the music video in Nigeria with the most views in the first half of 2021. “Jealous” by Alikiba featuring Mayorkun, “Follow You” by Fiokee featuring Gyakie and Chike.
Adebayo Fakiyesi a.k.a The Alien is a Nigerian video director who is making a big name for himself in the industry. His works have been amazing and great since his limelight. He is the Executive Director of EMPEROR ‘A’ DIAMOND FILMZ, a cinematography company with services in commercials , music videos, feature length film and editing. The Alien, the director behind BOJ, Ajebutter22 and Falz’s “Ronaldo”, He’s worked with Kizz Daniel ft. The Cavemen on “Oshe ” video, BNXN(Buju) for “Kilometre” remix video with Zinoleesky, the creative Kizz Daniel’s Flex video and many others.
The Alien has a Diploma in Cinematography and Film/Video Production, from the Pencil film and television institute (PEFTI). He has bagged a Bachelor of Applied Science (B.A.Sc.) Education from the Lagos State University.
In 2016, The Alien won the most promising video music director at the PRESTIGIOUS ONLINE PRESENCE AWARD (POPA)
Dawa calls himself as the Nigerian fixer of commercials, music videos, and brand films. On what he does, Dawa works to bridge the gap between concept and effecting for films, stills and digital content production in Nigeria.He described his passion for storytelling as one expressed through collaborations with world-class creatives on projects for global brands. He has collaborated with world-class creatives on several projects for global brands like Red Bull, MTN, & Nike.
He is the brain behind works like Joro by Wizkid, Energy by Skepta featuring Wizkid, Casanova by 2AM ft. Tory Lanez, Risky by Davido featuring Popcaan, Kizz Daniel’s ‘Madu’, etc. He has proved his worth collaborating with top directors that include Meji Alabi and Ademola Falomo among others.
Dawa is a graduate of Film and Television production at Georgia State University in Atlanta, USA.
If Nigeria is strapped with a lot of problems, it is also undoubtedly blessed with a lot of talents who have in turn touched every corner of the world with their gifts.Born and raised by Nigerian and Egyptian parents in North London, Dalia uses her African heritage as a source of inspiration in her work and creations.
Venturing into video directing at a young age in 2010, the 25 year old is continuing to place good music narratives for women especially blacks globally. Dilia started her artistic journey when she first picked up her mother’s small Canon Power Shot camera at the age of 15. A year later, she eventually upgraded to a DSLR camera and started shooting videos as she moved back to London after secondary school in Nigeria.
Her watermark has been stamped on videos such as the video release of City Girls’ Twerk which featured Cardi B and garnered over 20 Million views on Youtube. She also directed the music video of Buju Banton’s Blessed song. Dalia studied media in school, film production in college, and design and photography at university.
Back home in Nigeria, Dalia has brought the sounds of Davido’s CKay-featured La La to life with her visual skills and also directed DJ Spinall’s + Fireboy’s song, “Sere”. She aso directed the music video of Ms Bank’s “Angel” song featuring Naira Marley. She also directed three videos from DJ Spinall’s Grace album.
Dalia has also worked with other superstars like Wizkid, Davido, Stormzy, M-Huncho, Quavo and much more. She has also co-directed several projects with Nigerian-born British video director, DAPS .
Ademola’s outstanding videos have earned him recognition as one of the brilliant music video directors in the country today. The 24-year-old filmmaker was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria..
At just 13-years old, Ademola Falomo set out with an idea to change the music industry by creating music videos that bring up issues and fuel discussions; this motivated him to sojourn in a career as a cinematographer. In an interview he granted, Ademola said, “I basically started out with the idea to change an industry that sends out a message that materialism and consumerism are the keys to happiness.
His first major project was in 2018 – “Fake ID” by Kah-lo, a Grammy nominated singer. The song was a big hit that has been featured on quite a number of Netflix movies.
Falomo, who has created several music videos that include Odunsi The Engine’s ‘Desire ‘, Santi’s ‘Gangster Fear’ and ‘Sparky ‘, Ladipoe’s ‘Based on Kpa’ feat Crayon and Rema’s ‘Dumebi’. He also directed the official music video of Mavin’s star Magixx. ‘All Over.’ The creative filmmaker also created the eccentric visuals for Tem’s songs, “Try Me,” and “Damages”. Ademola’s other credits include multiple Santi records, DRB Lasgidi’sTrouble,” Boj’s “Abracadabra” from 2020 featuring Davido and Mr Eazi, Oxlade’s “Ojuju”, etc.
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