We have noted that Blueprint Hakeem has FINALLY released the video to his 2016 song ‘Abongwa‘ which had created a lot of buzz and had some really good reviews from fans. The song Abongwa is track #9 on the Cameroonian rappers’ already released 2016 Cold Like Alaska album and I have to admit that song was dope and (hopefully Blueprint Hakeem or his supporters don’t take offense to us saying “FINALLY” in capital letter with respect to the release of this video.
Although in our books, two years seems like a long time for a follow-up video to a song, especially in an industry where you’re bombarded with tons of new videos on a daily basis, the release of the official video for Abongwa was worth the wait and at the end of the day, a classic song is a classic song not matter when the video is out or not and we could safely say that the song had a degree of consciousness that remind us conscious rap songs in the likes of The Roots or Talib Kweli.
A simple but very meaningful video that allows you to still focus more on listening to the the lyrics of the song than getting distracted by every scene in the video but still pulling out the scenes that are meaningful and need to be noticesd, one can’t help but notice the creativity and message of it all as it brings about a form of consciousness to anyone who listens to it.
The song Abongwa is a story of a kid who wishes to go to school like regular kids do, but coming from a poor family juxtaposed with a useless and drunk of a father, those dreams may never come knocking. You see this with scenes of a hardworking mom and father who spends his time drinking while Abongwa crys as he tells his schoolmates the story of his family’s situation while they laugh at him and mock him. You can tell that this is a a story from a very true place as Hakeem admits that he came up with ideas of the things he saw in his neighborhood while growing up especially after looking at struggling children.
The video is so heartfelt as it sends out subtle messages of sadness and struggle that families go through and is quite ironic as it comes at a time when there is a politcal crises currently faced in the English part of Cameroon where children are forced to not go to school for a 3rd academic year, even though many have the means to under normal circumstances and if the situation were right. However, in Abongwa, here is a child who is not able to go to just go to schoool per say and wishes to because of a looser father who did not take his fatherly responisbility of working and caring for his family but instead drinks himself to stupor.
In this song, after the verse of the young kid who wants to to go school, Hakeem takes up the 2nd of two personalities as the second verse takes on another storyline, involving a substance abuse character called Bobga who is smoking and getting high on Maurijuana. Bobga became a marijuana addict after his rich father passed away. He became a loner, depressed because life wouldn’t smile as it used to when ‘daddy’ was alive.
Written by Blueprint Hakeem and produced by Chabi Z, the rapper shackled ideas with Cameroonian video director Yonka, to paint a vivid picture of an already solid-state written story. The colourful video directed by Yonka Films matches perfect the dramatization as Hakeems’ song narrates, and there’s that glimpse of splendour that Nebangu Muzik fans will crave for in a talent they have always hung unto like Blueprint. So watch and enjoy the visuals of the video and please share it around so others can experience Blueprints talents.
