Air Wizzy is about to take off, fasten your seat belts. The Nigerian superstar’s major label debut From the Other Side is on its way now and the first single from the project “Come Closer” has just gotten the visual treatment.
The video was directed by Nigerian-born, UK-based videographer DAPS who is also responsible for Migos’ “T-Shirt” video and it features popular American video models Chasity Simone and Bria Myles.
Watch “Come Closer” below:
“Come Closer” initially leaked online January 14, 2017 and was erroneously referred to as “Hush Up the Silence”. Wizkid officially released the single on March 31, 2017 two months after the leak and the official video a few hours ago.
“Come Closer” is a lively video, rich in colour and full of references to Wizzy’s home continent of Africa. However, Wizkid’s esteemed guest Drake is conspicuously absent from the video and Nigerian Twitter, as expected, is not having it.
Read some comments below:
Drake not being in the Come Closer video is such a violation smh
— KA$H (@Kashlanta) April 7, 2017
Drake no come closer
— Ayodeji Ajayi (@AyoJaguda) April 7, 2017
One Dance: Wizkid Missing.
Come Closer: Drake Missing.
Scoreline: 1-1
Winner: Drake pic.twitter.com/feMqr5n4Q2— Zaheer! (@Oluwasemilore_P) April 7, 2017
But the official explanation from Wizkid is that Drake was on tour at the time and couldn’t make it to the shoot – while Wizkid was shooting the video for “Come Closer” in New York, Drake was in Europe for his “Boy Meets World Tour”. Oddly, Wizkid has deleted that message from Twitter.
The Nigerian superstar was also conspicuously absent from Drake’s short film Please Forgive Me, even though the film was shot and produced in nearby South Africa. There was no official video for “One Dance” but the film contained scenes that utilized the hit song, so Wizzy’s absence was obviously a talking point.
But this absent-ism happens all the time. Scheduling conflicts are normal for an artist of Drake’s status who is constantly on the move. But at the same time, looking at it critically, since the entire “Come Closer” video was shot in a studio location, it should have been easy for Drake to take a break from tour, film his part in front of a green screen and send the visuals in. Although, seeing as Khaled, a man whom Drake has collaborated with on a number of occasions, is finding it hard to get a hold of his damn vocals, what chance does our poor Wizzy have?
That aside, you also get the sense that Sony’s hand was forced after the song leaked to the internet unexpectedly and they had to act fast to capitalize off the buzz. Perhaps in acting fast, they couldn’t wait for Drake to meet up with Wizzy’s plans and had to move.
That said, there were at least 3 other times when Drake was a no-show at video shoots and his absence wasn’t received well either. Let’s revisit them on this edition of #FlashbackFriday.
1. “MR. WRONG” – MARY J BLIGE (ft. DRAKE)-2011
Drake stood up the Queen of R&B soul in 2011. The original music video for Mary J Blige’s “Mr. Wrong” was released on December 19, 2011 and it featured Drake, however the much sought-after rapper did not appear in the video and his verse was omitted. Watch the video here.
An alternative version of the video was released on January 10, 2012. Drake is present in this one, the rapper is seen standing against a brick wall flooded in blue lights. The rest of the visuals remain mostly unchanged. The reason for his absence from the original video is unknown.
2 “TONY MONTANA” FUTURE ft. DRAKE-2011
Drake and Future have a solid relationship now but it didn’t start off that way. Future scored a hit with his breakout single “Tony Montana” and enlisted Drake to hop on the remix to the cut but when Drake didn’t show up for the video shoot, the Atlanta native considered it a “slap in the face’.
Future: “I salute him just for even getting on the record, because it says a lot about his character… I was just trying to do a great video… So many people from Atlanta wanted to get on the song. It (his not showing up) was basically a slap in my face.”
Drake’s response? “Throw em a bone and they want a steak.” Drizzy’s no-show caused an initial rift in the relationship between the two rappers but they’ve toured and collaborated together ever since.
3 “STILL GOT IT” TYGA ft. DRAKE – 2012
The history of this song is a bit all over the place. The original version of the song was first leaked on June 21, 2010 with only Drake on it, it was produced by Noah “40” Shebib, Drake’s longtime producer.
The song was then re-released on October 4, 2011 as the second single from Tyga’s debut studio album, Careless World: Rise of the Last King, with Drake only as a featured artist this time around.
But despite the song being originally his, and also being signed to the same label as Tyga at the time, Drake was absent from the video all together. The two would later work on a number of other big records and do videos together, unfortunately they would also have a spectacular falling out as well.