How TG Omori is Redefining the Nigerian Music Videos with Creative Visuals

As the coast of African music gets bigger as the seconds pass, there exists a time in the history of African Music that the yearning for better quality music videos increases. More "attention to details" visuals laced with stunning effects and amazing storytelling became a threshold value for every music video released.



This realization sparked a reawakening in the minds of artists, talent managers, A&Rs, label executives, and PR as they started to put more effort into creating creative visuals to capture the minds of their audience — one of those strong marketing plans to break even in the very competitive music industry like Nigeria.

TG Omori — The Man, The Art and The Styles.



Omori Thank God Jesam, popularly known as TG Omori and called by many as "Boy Director" might not have come from the most privileged of backgrounds, but his family wasn't poor either. His middle-class home instilled in him all the abstract values that he needed to become the Boy Director that he is today – the super talented Video Director and Cinematographer.



Growing up in Lagos, Agungi precisely has never been easy for a young boy born on June 8 1995, into a family of four. After he had his primary school in Agungi, he furthered his study at Kumaro College for his secondary school education and also proceeded to the university to study Performing and Media Art for two years. There, he wasn't a particularly academically gifted student, but what he lacked in book smarts, he made up for in native intelligence, creativity and the spirit of hustle.



Unlike every other privileged child of wealthy kids of Lagos, the journey wasn't rosy for TG Omori. He worked for a Red art group where he took the role of a scriptwriter, and perhaps this is one of the skills that make his visual storytelling distinct.

Consistency, they say, remains the mother of perfection. TG Omori developed his passion for video directing, and he started developing his craft in directing; albeit he learned how to direct stage plays while in film school, he didn't stick to the normals. He began researching and searching YouTube and other online platforms to train himself to become the best cinematographer.



In a 2019 interview he granted, he explained how he got the name and how he had a camera to himself, he said; "Even though it was not mine, It was always with me. With this camera I will go out, shoot viral videos with friends, and come back and edit it so with this I was getting more experience and trying to discover myself, so luckily for me a friend of mine introduced me to a group that gave me the contract, he believed so much in me that I could deliver which I did and the videos were played everywhere and I have been able to keep the hustle going.

In 2019, growth found him. At a period when we had the likes of other amazing video directors in the industry like Moe Musa, Sesan, Adasa Cookey, Clarence A Peters, and others controlling all the major top hit music videos in the industry. TG Omori had already started his filmmaking career before he shot some of the most controversial music videos in 2019. Before he arrived in the industry, the music video narrative used to be the regular idea of people with expensive cars, big booty girls, and some big guys in a group in booze - smoking and drinking.



In 2019, TG Omori shot the most audacious and controversial music videos in that year, by Naira Marley, Am I Yahoo Boy, and then to Tekno featuring Zlatan, titled Agege — to Olamide's Oil & Gas to Teni's "billionaire" and Olamide Totori with Wizkid. The aforementioned videos deviated from the norms and exposed the Nigerian music industry to a new world of ideas. It also got him called in for questioning by the Nigerian Police for public disturbance.

Omori is weird and alte — one uniqueness ever-present in his work, dressing and lifestyle. The fluidity of his art emanates from our TV screens or devices as he continues to work with colours, lights and angles that complement whatever song or artiste he is shooting at the time.

For someone who dreams of shooting videos for stars like Beyonce, hoping to bring these stars to Nigeria to shoot their videos with him here in the motherland, He didn't relent; instead, he improved his creative visuals.



In one of the interviews he granted in 2020, TG said; "I want to bring the world to Africa, I want you to want to come to shoot in Nigeria. We're painting Africa as a culture everyone wants to be a part of. The same way you want to shoot pop videos in America, I want them to come to shoot afrobeats videos in Africa, to make afrobeats a lifestyle the whole world wants a part of. I want Beyoncé, Jay Z, and J Hus to want to shoot a video with me here in Nigeria. I want my videos to be a point of reference."



His art direction is what has gotten him all the attention, not the camera he uses or the girls he makes available for shoots. In "Soapy," one of the viral videos he made for Naira Marley, he constructed a prison and replicated his experience in prison and made it lively and real. From 2019 until now, He has worked with almost all the A-list acts in Nigeria. From Olamide and Wizkid to other list artistes like Blackbonez, Don Jazzy, Fireboy DML, Timaya, Tiwa Savage, D Banj, and Tekno. Shots over 405 music videos, redefining the game and causing much-needed disruption at this time.



It's not a call for debate that the Nigerian creative boom has also spurred an era of photographers and filmmakers, and TG Omori is one video director that's changing the narrative of cinematography with a fresh interpretation of age-old phenomena.

Since global music networks Soundcity and Trace arrived and dominated African screens, maintaining mainstream relevance through popular videos has become the norm that made TG usurp the class of Clarence Peters, DJ TEE, and others.



Do you also think TG Omori is currently the best Music Video Director in Africa? Let's know your thoughts.