After a lot of sweat, tears, laughs and pure diligence and hard work we managed to, collaborating with some amazing artists (seriously, guys I couldn’t have done this without you…), produce and direct our first two music videos. You’d remember I started this blog to promote raising $2500 to help make these videos. We managed to raise in total about $800 from friends and family through online fund raising and we also got some other things and services in kind. Even though we didn't reach our goals we managed to work with what we had to create, I think something beautiful and creative.
Words can’t even begin to express and tell you all how grateful and thankful I am for all your help!!!
Please enjoy M3NSA’s 1st music video from Sankofa Pictures and stay tuned for his second one coming real soon. I’ll be blogging about that one shortly.
It's set to release with his full global album release, February 14th 2011.Meanwhile, do enjoy and once again, thanks!
♥
Making of the Video - Behind the Scenes
The message of this song is pretty simple; not to worry too much about tomorrow and precisely what it’s going to bring, but living in TODAY, to the fullest. Doing what is right for yourself, for humanity, and fulfilling your soul’s purest purpose will almost always ensure a tomorrow worth looking forward to!
The amazing crew and talent on this project are donating their time, energy and experience to this video and for this we thank and appreciate them sincerely.We really appreciate any support at all. If you can’t help monetarily, please help by passing this along to others, as we would like to spread the message and our cause to as many people as possible.
We hope this video will help lead the way in pushing these independent African artists into the mainstream.
To hear No One Knows visit
http://soundcloud.com/m3nsa/no-one-knows
To follow the Making of the video No One Knows
http://www.sankofamangoes.blogspot.com
To help fund our project,
http://www.indiegogo.com/No-One-Knows-Tomorrow
Our Cause
In the spirit of the world of fantasy and storytelling, we are committed to help making as many fantasies, dreams and hopes come true for children. Through the magically work of art, (video and music) we will aim to donate a portion the proceeds from our video projects’ profits to a cause that enhances a child’s life, like arts education. Ghana is a creative and vibrant nation and it's time for us to let our presence through our art be seen and heard. We hope through our commitment, we can help impact the less fortunate and less encouraged in some way through building arts education awareness.
This video will also help to support a fantastic cause, AKOSIA (a non-profit organization which funds and facilitate artistic projects for underprivileged children around the world). For more information about AKOSIA, go to www.akosia.org
For their next project, they need to raise over $20,000 for a team in Ghana as well as one in India or Nepal. I intend on joining AKOSIA for their upcoming 2011 summer project and hope to donate a portion of my project's proceeds to help these kids.
I truly believe in the cause that AKOSIA stands for, and I hope that you'll show your support for AKOSIA by assisting me with the production of this video.
Please help our cause and spread the love!!
Words from M3NSA
I heard a song by Asa called “No One Knows Tomorrow’’ and I felt that statement was so true! No one ever really knows what the future will bring, things can always take a turn for the better, or be disastrous. The idea is to enjoy the present to the fullest and be prepared for what the future may bring.
Looking back at my life, I would have never believed it if someone told me ten years ago that this is where I would be. Life has been good to me, not with material things like physical wealth, but rich experiences, great opportunities to work with talented people, travel to places I’d never dreamt of seeing, and a wealth of knowledge from interacting with people from all walks of life. All this happened by me just deciding to follow my heart and my true passion! But I never anticipated this.
Hearing Asa sing lyrics along those lines made me want to bring myself to it and be a part of that energy. So I used her vocals for the chorus because she sang so beautifully and it always hit me in the right spot every time I heard the song.
The message, is pretty simple, not to worry too much about tomorrow and precisely what its going to bring, but living TODAY, to the fullest, doing what is right, to yourself, to humanity, and fulfilling your soul’s purest purpose will almost always certify a Tomorrow worth looking forward to!
The powerful message in this song couldn’t be complete without a video. Visuals can always help tell a story more vibrantly, with pictures, colours, scenery and action, to fulfil all the things missed out sonically. Not only does a video enhance sound or music for that matter, we’re in an age where people always what to connect music with images. The video tells the story of a man looking to find what exactly the future will bring, by consulting soothsayers, fortune tellers etc. However, what they predict is often inaccurate and he has to alter the future himself. For instance he sees a weatherman, on TV, predicting the weather in the future, and it seems gloomy, so he hits the side of the television and the weatherman switches his forecast to something more positive. This is to signify that sometimes we have to take action to alter the future!
Words from Sankofa
The youth these days listen to a lot of music and by having creative videos that send a great message as well as a powerful image, I believe is a way that can bring about initial change to my country as well as Africa as a whole and even the world.
As a child, many positive music videos I got to see with very strong messages have influenced me and made me a better person today. I have steadily seen a decline in this. ‘No One Knows’ gives me a unique opportunity to send a strong, positive and fun message to people about determination, faith, and comfort knowing that we shouldn't worry about life as we know it for tomorrow but living today because no one ever knows what the future holds for us. We can work towards what we want for our future today and be great at it.
I am believer in creating your own future. Take the words from this song, and hopefully very soon the visuals of what this beautiful message says. One of my favorite parts of this song is such a beautiful simple summation of how and what many of us wait and hope for.
I wont stop to live my life to wait for better days
And if you think its wrong then show me a better way
Life is hard! we’re not happy, we’re trying to get away
We keep on waiting for tomorrow
But it seems it never comes
Procrastinate, we wait…
So the job… is never done
Remember, you can shape your own tomorrow.
