JBLESSING: I have paid my dues

Music video director and producer Jibril Blessing has been in the industry for nine years. From a River Road music producer to now a sought after award winning music video director and television producer, Blessing has proved himself a self-made man.

Video directing and producing in the local music scene is still new. The first generation of video directors was Ogopa and Calif Records and I’m part of the second generation which was the likes of Sakata media and Boomba videos. The third generation is made up of people like Enos Olik and Young Wallace. We are growing, we are progressing. We have an association for video directors called Audio Visual Rights Management (AVRIM) led by Enos and I’m the assistant chairman.

When it gets down to competition we are way ahead of Nigeria. The only thing we lack are structures and trust from our artistes. But I work with artistes who trust me and invest their time, money and concepts in me and we’ve come out with successful projects. I believe there are artistes who have trusted other video directors as well. I believe we are on the right track owing to the fact that including me, Ogopa, Enos and so many others have been nominated in big awards. Artistes need to believe in us more and as directors we need to have a business sense in what we are doing.

South African and Nigerian video directors have nothing on us. But there is so much we are not doing and it’s because of familiarity with each other in the industry. You know what they say about familiarity... I remember I used to do videos for free, so now someone might feel like ‘if this guy used to shoot videos for me for free then why should I pay him this much, let me take this money to Nigeria or South Africa’. At the moment I cannot take home less than Sh200,000 for doing a video. We have gone to school and studied too. I know most Kenyan directors went for their studies in South Africa, I went to the states. We are up to the task. We are mentoring people and we will extend this to the next generation.

Video directing and producing is like poetry. It’s about one’s artistry and the audience is there to interpret. It depends on who is watching because while one person might think a music video is of poor quality another might think that it’s amazing. There are upcoming directors who produce below average videos but those are good too because at the end of the day they learn from them. But generally speaking I don’t think there is any director in their right mind, unless he is there for the money, who will do a shoddy job. We use the same HD or 4K cameras and lighting, what may differ is the experience. 

I used to be an audio producer at River Road. It was tough because I wasn’t good at playing instruments but I had some music knowledge. Back then you would get paid sh10,000 for producing a whole album which would take about two weeks. I’ve come a long way. I’ve worked with a lot of artistes from Uganda, Congo, Tanzania and the United States. Depending on the job they fly me out to locations to shoot their videos.

I have paid my dues. I used to be a dancer, then I became a gospel musician singing worship songs and afterwards I got interested in audio production. Funny enough when I got into video production it only took me four months to gain recognition. I think it’s because hype gospel music videos was a raw concept then. And that’s when I realised I could turn my passion into a business. Clients began streaming in and I saved up enough to go to school. I took a one year crash course along with other courses.

An artiste’s song has to be in support of what I believe in. Nowadays I’m keen on being in sync with artistes’ visions and video concepts. I don’t support the use of drugs in videos or prostitution. I’ve built relationships along the way but with some artistes its purely business. But I’m on board with growing together for those who are interested in getting to new levels in their careers.

The first episode that I ever directed of the Churchill Show never went on air (laughs), it was terrible. I panicked, I knew I would be fired. This is why I respect Ndambuki so much, he told me ‘J, it’s going to be okay’. I was introduced to Churchill by a friend of mine. I joined the Churchill Show just around the time I was finishing up school and was looking to see how I could make things work. I’d worked with him on a different project before. Ndambuki believed in me even though I didn’t have television experience. Churchill is not a one man show. In music videos you do everything, from handling the camera to editing but for the show (Churchill) to work you need more than 50 people. I did it for about one and a half years then left to grow my company. After about a two year break I came back, that was last year in August. Ndambuki is more than a boss to me, he’s been involved in my life in so many ways.

We used to live in the same house with Bahati, Willy Paul and Eko Dydda back when we were struggling. I’ve helped launch artistes’ careers like Willy Paul, Mr Seed, DK Kwenye Beat, Bahati, Hopekid and others. I remember when gospel artistes wanted to make it most of them used to come to me. It’s not that I was the best but it was God’s favour that helped me catapult those careers.

There are very few women videographers in the industry. I’m however trying to mentor a few. This work isn’t easy, I’m not saying women aren’t tough, they are, but this work isn’t about being emotional. I know one who is coming up the ladder she is doing great.

My dreadlocks are about six years old. This is the first time I’m working with a stylist because there’s a project I’m doing for Safaricom and I need to do a photoshoot. Its weird sitting in a chair and having someone apply make up on me.

I’ve made some huge mistakes along the way which I’m not proud of. But I’m the best version of myself because of those mistakes. I’ve pinched myself so hard for all the mistakes I’ve made because I can’t afford to repeat them.

Sometimes I wish I wasn’t in the limelight. There’s nothing as great as just being you. But this is my calling so however much I wish it I have to be there for others. I’m a public figure at the end of the day. The opportunity that God has given me is to put J Blessing out there to inspire young people and mentor them.