To Be Catched or Not To be Catched

Booty-shaking is an art form!!



I realized this the hard way a short while ago, after being in front of my mirror for about 15minutes trying in vain to make it clap!! My booty just refused to rise and slam against itself in the way I see the hip-hop video girls’ booties do.
Disappointed, I sulked to my bed and decided that I’ll leave the clapping to them and just focus on my writing.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, hip-hop video vixens have become the models of who the modern woman is.

Inspiration for fashion, dance and even attitudes have been drawn from videos, thus creating a whole generation of females whose lifestyles are like the making of a bad music video.

Mellyssa Ford is an iconic hip-hop video vixen who has appeared in videos like Jay Z’s ‘Big Pimpin’ and Mystikal’s ‘Shake Ya Ass’.


She surprisingly attended York University with a major in Forensic Psychology!! How does one go from that to hip-hop video modeling…Wow!! It takes a talented girl to study forensic psychology and then become the hottest and most famous video vixen in history.
She interestingly admitted in a 2008 interview with CNN that music videos are demeaning to women.

Celebrities like Cassie, Jennifer Lopez, Gabrielle Union amongst others have at one
time or the other graced a hip-hop video, although not in a booty-shaking capacity.

Coming home to Naija hip-hop videos, which from what I've seen is often categorized by badly dressed females sticking their fingers in their mouths while they move suggestively in front of the camera or guys sitting in front of tables with un-opened bottles of alcohol.


I’m not one of those prudes who criticize hip-hop videos as if they are a documentary made by the Anti-Christ himself, after all, it was me trying to make my booty clap! I guess I’ve just accepted the fact that they are here to stay and so I might as well siphon those elements of hip-hop culture that appeal to me.

This brings me to my dilemma which has the capacity to transform me from a practicing observer to an active performer in the bling-bling flashing, bottle popping and booty shaking world of hip-hop videos.


I’ve recently been approached to appear as one of the few ladies in a music video!! The pitch is that we (me and the other approached ladies) are not to be depicted in the normal ass-romping way of most videos, but rather with a classy elegance that is to be sexy in itself.



Their idea is to create a video that deviates from the regular hip-hop video norm.

Tempting, up until I heard the song!!

The catch phrase of the song is ‘If I catch you’ and it’s basically a guy telling of the things he’d do to a chic if he catches her. Hmmnnn…
So my dilemma?? To be or not to be a hip-hop video vixen that is to be ‘catched’!!!
I’m not really sure how classy elegance is to be depicted with ‘If I catch you’ playing in the background sha, but if you can see how this can be achieved biko (please) let me know!!

I only have about 3 more days to make the final decision, and I’m asking for your advice in doing so. Should I go ahead and do this, risking the fact that I may appear like just another video chic? Or should I get into my die-hard gold sandals and run as fast as I can to avoid being ‘catched’??


P.S: Is there some rule about hip-hop videos that says only big-bootied females can appear? How come I’ve only been approached now that my booty has gone platinum?

(Tari Ekiyor remains Un-Catched till this day!!) 06/09/09