2022 Prism Prize Eligible Video: Shopé - Pepper Dem

By External Source

The 2021 Prism Prize for Best Canadian Music Video was awarded to Theo Kapodistrias, for his clip for Haviah Mighty’s Thirteen. We will continue to profile noteworthy Canadian videos that are eligible for the 2022 prize, including this one from a Toronto-based Nigerian-Canadian rapper. 

Shopé - Pepper Dem

Nigerian-Canadian rapper Shopé grew up in Lagos, Nigeria and moved to Toronto with his family when he was 11 years old. He has said that he has a strong love of music which hits the core of his heart. Throughout his life he has spent many hours honing his musical craft; this has helped him build his musical career to what it is today. Shopé has toured the world - from the USA and Africa to Europe. He also won CBC’s Searchlight contest in 2019 and was recently selected as one of this year’s winners for the 2021 Black Canadian music awards presented by SiriusXM Canada and the SOCAN Foundation. At the moment, Shopé has over 7 million streams and has released 3 albums, 1 commentary album, and a handful of singles. 

The video for Pepper Dem starts like an interview when Shopé then goes into the music video for the song. We see a young boy watch Shopé’s interview on the TV right as the song starts. One fun aspect of this video is the interview-styles scenes with Shopé, especially the one where he explains the meaning of the song's title Pepper Dem. The video also has some great dancing scenes interjected between the ‘interview’ styles footage. Overall, it’s a fun music video that will make you want to dance along to this catchy song. 

Additional vocals by Angelo Anosike

Production Company: Trak Fve

Executive Producer: Trak Sousa

Directed by Justin Campbell x Mosope Adeyemi

PM: Tasha Kapunovich

Director of Photography: Aaron Alter

1st AC: Alice Do

Female Lead Actor: Tehya Tucker

Male Lead Actor: Peyton

Choreographer: Cheyanne Chante

Dancer 1: Cheyanne Chante

Dancer 2: Janice Ellis

Dancer 3: Angelica Manuela

Studio: Propaganda Art House

Special thanks to Corex Creative