Making Hip-Hop Music Videos in Accra: Exploring Creativity and Friction in Music Video Production

This paper examines how directors and rappers negotiate competing motivations and aesthetic preferences in the production of hiplife music videos. Drawing on production studies and a new mobilities approach, the paper employs the concept of friction to examine the mobility of creativity within the production process. The study identifies three main points of friction in the production process: motivations for creating music videos, what constitutes a good song, and what constitutes a successful music video. The paper highlights the role of friction and its management as an integral part of the production process. Frictions in video production reveal how power arrangements in the production process influence creative direction. Furthermore, the paper argues that a frictionless production process is not necessarily beneficial, as contestation can be productive. Ultimately, friction reveals and troubles hegemonic ideas that shape representations at various scales in production.