The Lagos video is kind of a remix music video for “Hold Me Back.” The previous version was shot on location in New Orleans, Louisiana. Is this about Ross being a fan of soccer now, especially of the Nigerian national team? We are not sure. Is it a statement against Igbo claims about the Biafran War in which nearly 3 million people lost their lives? Boima Tucker says he is certain Ross doesn’t really know anything about Biafra. It is not unclear what the directors of the Lagos themed “Hold me back” wanted to communicate with this video. Ross has featured in a music video with Nigerian pop stars before (he did a guest verse on “Beautiful Onyinye” by the P-Square brothers) which music video was mostly shot on a yacht) and has traveled elsewhere on the continent.

The music video ends with grainy images of the Nigerian national football team’s greatest moments - in the 1994 World Cup in the United States and the 1996 Gold Medal performance against Argentina in the final of the Olympic Games men’s football tournament. Sample lyric: “Momma workin’ three jobs ’til I told her to quit / How we rose from the sewers, funny now I’m the shit.” The video then cuts to a series of disconnected images – Nigerians in a mosque, goats, expensive wrist watches, children crying, a man washing his feet, theater performers on a boat, Rick Ross handing out money to children, more poverty, etcetera – while a shirtless Rick Ross raps obscenities and misogyny on repeat (“niggas,” hoes” and “bitch” feature heavily for holding him back) interspersed with motivational speeches. The announcer introduces a general of the Nigerian Federal Government who declares himself pleased with the war’s outcome. Shot in black and white, the music video opens with grainy late 1960s footage of the Biafran War from a US television news show. The video – it resembles the travel diaries usually shot by rappers on tour – is a strange mix of images and ideas over a nonsensical rap.

Dylan Valley, Boima Tucker, Elliot Ross and Olajumoke Verissimo contributed to this post.Īmerican rapper (and music executive) Rick Ross shot the latest version of the music video for his “Hold Me Back” record in Obalende, a poor section of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.

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