Watch a Surreal Rap Video from Sierra Leone

When you think of rap music and the west African nation of Sierra Leone, you unfortunately might think of Ebola Pop, or Kanye West’s “Diamonds from Sierra Leone”—the educated might be familiar with the Salone music popular there. If that’s not the case, though, consider this new video for Sierra Leonian rapper Moinina Sengeh’s “Ar Don Go” ft. Kate Krontiris your introduction to the country’s seductive, joyful music scene.

Sengeh is perhaps better known as a Ph.D candidate at the MIT Media Lab, and a TED fellow who is working on a process for making comfortable prosthetics for the many Sierra Leonian amputees who lost limbs during the brutal massacres of the 90s. He’s also founded an NGO, been selected as one of Forbes’ 30 under 30, and is known in Sierra Leone for his Nyali fashion line. With “Ar Don Go,” he develops a budding career as a rapper. All these creative explorations work toward the same goal of nurturing his country, whether it’s healing their physical bodies or drawing the kids away from drugs and gangs and towards creativity.

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Sengeh met fellow TED fellow Joey Foster Ellis through a private TED Facebook group, and they soon clicked and decided to work together on a video for Sengeh’s new song. Ellis, himself a mixed-media artist with a masters in conservation science. What they created together is an amalgam of internet history, GIFs, sculpture, and animation that defies strict definition. When he first heard the song, Ellis says, “I pretty much saw an orgy of objects, text and imagery from the get go. I knew exactly the material I had collected over the years and felt that now was the time to use it.”

See the video for “Ar Don Go,” plus our full interview with Ellis, below.

The Creators Project: How did you meet Moinina Sengeh?

Joey Foster Ellis: I know of him as being a fellow TED Fellow, his class was 2014, mine being 2010. We first met online through a private TED Fellow FB group. He posted that he was interested in turning his “Ar Don Go” single into an animated music video and me being in a mood to say yes said yes. I really had no idea how to do it since I had never done anything like it before but I was up for the challenge. I definitely overstated my capabilities during our first correspondence. At the time I had just graduated from a masters of science program at UCL in Doha, Qatar and thought it would be a nice re-entry back into my artistic practice. I had spent two years studying conservation science in relation to cultural heritage objects.

I first met Moi in person at a TED Fellow retreat this past August, about 8 months after we started working on it. We were premiering a 1-minute abridged version at the retreat.

What did you envision for the video the first time you heard the song?

I pretty much saw an orgy of objects, text and imagery from the get go. I knew exactly the material I had collected over the years and felt that now was the time to use it. I definitely wanted airplane manuals, Play-Doh, and finger paint. I wanted this kinetic sand that you buy at airport gift shops, plasticine clay that you make molds with, etc…. It needed to be fun, not overly serious like an Adele video, it needed to be complex on multiple layers and it needed to be beautiful.

How did the video change from your first idea to the final product?

I struggled in the beginning because David had mentioned in our first emails that he envisioned a main character that was a boy, in some sense a representation of himself. I couldn’t do it, just wasn’t in me as an artist to bring a physical person into it. While studying in Beijing I sculpted naked Chinese people for 5 years straight. I’m done with people. I tried to think of maybe turning a pencil into a kid, drawing facial expressions on it in a way but I ended up with a ping pong ball. I really didn’t want anything that could be attached to a race, gender or sexuality so I thought an orange ping pong ball would fit the bill.

I think the true change is that David at one point gave the song to me and let me do what I want with it. I then slowly digested it in my own way and thats what I think is great about this work because the lyrics are David’s, the imagery is mine but when put together they both inform each other in a very beautiful way. Thats why it’s global because think of it, it’s a song about Sierra Leone made by an upstate New Yorker in Kathmandu. Three places you wouldn’t imagine to ever be connected.

What artists and filmmakers visually influenced the video?

I don’t know. To me this really isn’t so much a video but more an animated sculpture. Artists? None right now that I can think of other than the designers of the objects and imagery used. Many years ago I took myself out of the art scene and became a traveling recluse of an artist. My influences are organic, spur of the moment, and based on where I am at the moment. For example, when I ran out of material while filming I would take a part of the lyrics and then walk the streets in Kathmandu. I’d have key words in my head that I needed references for. I then would look at everything in these stores, markets, and see what I personally imagined and felt while viewing them. For “Work hard and do send remittances” I found a telephone address book, for “Yes yes, then on the same level” I thought of games, Tetris at first, but then came across this cheap Rubik’s cube at this kids stationary store. Very literal, at times almost cliche connections but then when I connected them to popular gifs based off YouTube videos they took on more meaning.

Where did you get the idea to encapsulate other popular YouTube videos in your video?

I knew I needed something that tied everything together visually and also something realistic and not so object-oriented. The objects I find come across as a whole to somewhat more of a 3D illustration, they at times even look cartoon like. I needed something that was framed based, I wasn’t going to put in video afterwards through After Effects. One, I didn’t know how to do that, and two, I wanted everything to be somewhat hand constructed. At first I thought of using Eadward Muybridge’s zoopraxiscope work, but it was too dated and I found it somewhat flat both conceptually and in context. GIFs to me are modern day versions of images that could appear in a zoopraxiscope. At most you have around 50 frames but you can break that down to around 16 to 20. GIFs to me today are also a form of language, we use GIFs to portray the context behind how we feel on a daily basis since people can relate to forms of media that they themselves have mutually experienced. They were a perfect fit to connect the layers of the work. Similar to how I went searching for things in Kathmandu based off the associations with the lyrics, I went online and played with websites like Giphy and Google image searches. I would type in keywords and see what came up, what was tagged with these words and how people today were using these as a way of communication.

Why did you include and give special thanks to Nathan Barnatt?

Ha. Because of his dance moves obviously, that GIF of him dancing was one of the most popular ones that historically went viral as well as the “Madonna Kid,” a.k.a., Robert E. Jeffrey. I actually wrote them both before I used them to see if I could get permission. Not all GIFs have concrete reference points, but these were from an artists work so I wanted to write them even tho I really didn’t need to.

What is Moi’s role in the Sierra Leone rap scene?

Although Moi is primarily known across Sierra Leone as an innovator and youth enabling enthusiast who has mentored hundreds of young people in his home country, his influence on popular culture is broad. He owns a fashion line in addition to rapping. He is definitely a new voice on the rap scene with a completely new approach to the messages he incorporates in Salone music. This video is new and different and it pioneers a form of content creation that’s unique.

How is this song relevant to what’s going on there right now, both musically and lyrically?

The track really deals with inspiring (young) people to be connected with home and to most importantly be a part of the change.. “cuz for change, we need the change na your pocket, not the bling, so dont lock it…” Sierra Leone at this point needs lots of positive change and Moi channels that through the positivity of his lyrics, challenging youth to “fight for Justice, like Malcolm X or MLK.” One thing that remains clear is that Moi is a nerd. He finds time to tell us that as he highlights winning one of the most prestigious awards a PhD student can win, the Lemelson-MIT student prize.

What’s next for you as an artist?

I want to use this piece and build off it, use it as material to experiment with and then create a new stop-motion based off the results. I have a couple artists I’m talking with now for music videos and the next one I create I want it to be different visually. I identify as a sculptor so I want to create some physical representations of these animations. Currently I’m in Jingdezhen so I will be starting a line of ceramic plates based off the imagery, a collection of miniature ceramic sculptures, and also working on VR work that deals with ceramic processes behind how I make my objects. Currently I’m in the midst of creating an outsourced design co-op in Kathmandu, a Thanka/Mewar painting project in Nepal/India and building a studio/store in Jingdezhen. My mind changes constantly so this honestly could all change tomorrow but this is what I’ve been working on over the last year while making this film.