GHETTO DREAM
MOVIE REVIEW
“Mo ni dream lati fi Ajah se residence
mo ni dream lati di Nigerian President
owo ti awon president nje lon encourage mi
epe ti awon eniyan se fun won lon discourage mi
mo ni dream lati di pastor
but everyone ni mo n mu shepe, mo de n fa polli,
mo ni dream lati believe bi pastor Chris
but mo wa carried away pelu efizzy ludacris”
He did not do music for the award show judges, or upper class kids in Ikoyi, When Dagrin rapped, he did it for the streets. He did it for the street urchins in Mushin, he did it for the elderly lady setting “boli” in Ajegunle, he did it for the young hustler living in the ghetto, dreaming of a great life in the future. Dagrin inspired the down trodden, they were his salesmen settling his lifestyle, he was their CEO (Chief executive omita).The start was rough for Dagrin, just like every artiste.
He hustled and was rejected severally for his different brand of hiphop. His persistence paid off, the shows started coming, everyone wanted a piece of him on their album, mixtapes, and video shoots. Then suddenly, death came knocking. His life and times was like a rose that grew from concrete but trampled by death.
THE GHETTO DREAM
It wasn’t a bad idea when the Stingomania crew decided to do a biopic on Dagrin’s life and times. His journey to fame, his hustle, dreams for the future, his love life, family life, rejections on the path to success, and his eventual death. With appearance from Nollywood’s veteran actors Pa Kasumu, Rachael Oniga, and the relatively young and talented Gabriel Afolayan, including a role from the fast rising Oyindamola Odesola, and a celebrity appearance from Kenny Saint Brown and Jaywon. The movie was directed by Daniel Ademinokan.
THEMATIC THRUST
The thematic thrust of the movie can be viewed from four perspectives. Dreams, struggles, success and death. Dagrin dreamt and aspired to become a superstar which he almost attained. Just like the lines in one of his songs:
“Aimoye Igba ti awon eyan ti ni kin lo give up
won ni mo local, pe ona mi onse hip-hop
But mo wa determined, mo de wa focused
Tori eni oruko mi se spread bi staphylococcus”
His rise to the top was full of struggles. He had to do odd jobs, hustling the way an area boy would. All this he always reflected in his lyrics. Painfully his struggling days wasn’t well represented in the movie. Too much attention was being paid on his venture into “yahoo yahoo” at the expense of other periods of his life when he roamed the street, and become violent as a boy. These highpoints of his life were sadly missing in the movie. There were times in his life when he did free shows, when he had many coloured t-shirts and only one red boot to match. The producers of the movie where in a hurry to tell the story, that the movie just transmuted form Dagrin’s struggling moments, to his stardom days without the viewers of the movie being taken through the process of his success. He just started living the life, driving his own car without a detailed description of how these things happened for him.
CHARACTER
Doris Simeon who played the role of Chichi, Dagrin’s girlfriend was obviously too old for the role. The director should have used someone that is of the same age bracket with the Dagrin we knew. This choice affected the plausibility of the movie. At that point in Dagrin’s life, his girlfriend could not been more than 18-23. Doris didn’t look that young and was not made up to. Trybson, the guy who played the role of Dagrin found it difficult holding, kissing, and caressing , the actress. There was a serious disconnect between Trybson and Doris. Oyindamola Odesola the lady who acted as Dagrin’s sister might well serve as a perfect person to play the role . Rachael Oniga deserves a thumbs up for excellently depicting the role of Dagrin’s mother in the movie.
PLAUSIBILITY
For a man who used music to escape a lot of trouble, one would have expected to see in Ghetto Dreams, Dagrin hitting stages as much as he was hitting studios. Why was any of his performances not shown? Why was he already using a Blackberry bold 2 (as seen in the movie) far back in his “Yahoo yahoo” days, when that phone was only released last year. The lazy portrayal of his accident which should have been an highpoint in the movie, for me has scored the movie low. His tragic death was generously covered by the media in Nigeria. But the lazy infantile method the producers adopted goes to devalue the role the media played in the coverage of Dagrin’s death. Why was YQ (a close friend) not featured in the film? DJ Zeez too
was missing in action.
LANGUAGE
The language-medium of communication in the movie was not really focused on. At a point, the cast were conversing in English Language, at another instances, pidgin English, then suddenly, you hear Yoruba in other scenes . A lot of street slangs were employed in the movie, which made the ghetto scenes a bit believable.There was a lot of background noise during the movieshoot, which affected the audio clarity of the movie.
For a biopic movie, one would have expected the producers to work on their research and really dig out the nitty gritty of Dagrin’s lives, the movie is only rich in sound and music, but bereft of rich dialogue and content.
For those who scarcely knew Dagrin or his music, the movie will give you an insight into the man, his music and his mysterious death, beyond its plethora of blunders. And you will almost shed a tear for the rising star that never was.
