Interview: Karam Gill On How ‘Music Box: Wizkid: Long Live Lagos’ Reclaims Cultural Pride and Shifts Global Perceptions

Music Box: Wizkid: Long Live Lagos, the new HBO documentary directed by Karam Gill, goes beyond your standard musician profile. Anchored around Wizkid’s (Ayodeji Balogun) historic 2023 sold-out show at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the film explores the reshaping of global perceptions of Africa and the reclaiming of cultural pride through the music of the 31-year-old Nigerian Grammy-winning artist. The film provides an intimate look at the artist as well as putting his musical prowess centerstage, all while delivering thought-provoking messages that add tremendous gravitas.

Gill draws from his family’s experiences with racism in post-colonial Britain when explaining his motivation for choosing Wizkid as the subject of his most recent doc. “I’ve always been a huge fan of his music, first and foremost. Beyond that, my parents were both born in Africa, they moved to the UK during a time where the UK was extremely racist. My dad still has scars on his eyes from being jumped by skinheads. It develops this inferiority complex. How do you possibly change that? How do you get the world to look at you differently? Wizkid would be the perfect vehicle to really illustrate how things are changing in the world. Art has this incredible power to shift how we look at people in communities.”

The Tottenham concert serves as a symbolic centerpiece, a massive celebration of Wizkid’s music, packed with inspired fans. “This Tottenham show became the anchor point because it’s a very symbolic event. Look at this moment in the heart of London, in this land that has destroyed so many generations of humans. The British Empire is one of the worst things that has happened in history. This is the culture unapologetically entering itself right into the smack middle of London and taking over.”

Gill highlighted Wizkid’s extraordinary stardom in Nigeria, likening it to Lionel Messi’s in Argentina, far surpassing U.S. levels, with police firing guns in the air to clear paths, as fans see him as embodying national pride and more. “This is bigger than music. This is people’s hopes and dreams of the future. This is a sense of pride and identity.”

Capturing the impact of Wizkid was an enormous undertaking that took crews on the ground. “Shooting this project wasn’t like anything else. Multiple units across multiple countries capturing multiple storylines. It was very logistical, it was very complex, across the project,” explained Gill. “We had 27 cameras and a crew of over 80 people just working on the concert to capture that day itself. While the show is being set up, captured on all those cameras, you also have people with Wizkid and you have this super fan Starboy as his own unit.” (Starboy is a dedicated Nigerian fan whose personal trek to the concert provides a ground-level view of Wizkid’s impact on his fans.)

“The world’s changing because people have access to great art. It’s allowing you to see communities and people in a different light. Great art really is more than just dancing. It’s more than just paintings. It’s more than just fashion. It’s a weapon. It’s a tool,” stated Gill. “Art has this incredible power to shift how we look at people in communities. What I noticed was happening in the world was Afrobeats, the music coming out of India, Korea, Bad Bunny… all the different places are completely being transformed from a perception perspective.”

The goals for the documentary go beyond the music and the artist, with Gill challenging the Western-centric worldview shaped by the media, urging viewers to look beyond familiar borders and discover shared humanity and the creativity in regions often unfairly looked down upon. “I just hope people realize the world is a lot bigger than I think we realize,” explained Gill. “Western culture and media has been so dominant it’s very easy for us to fall into the trap of looking at everything from a very singular perspective. But if you actually take the time to look outwards, there’s a lot of empathy and sympathy and also a lot of beauty in these places. The kids and the youth culture scenes that are emerging out there are actually far more creatively interesting and dynamic. I think it’s important to appreciate these different cultures because there’s a lot of inspiration that can be found in those places.”

With Gill turning the lens onto Wizkid the film helps continue the true cultural shift where overlooked voices and people are finally heard and celebrated on their terms.

Music Box: Wizkid: Long Live Lagos is now streaming on HBO Max.