Falz has named Childish Gambino’s American story as the ‘original’ inspiration behind his new project.

Nigerian rapper, Falz released the video for his new song “This Is Nigeria,” on Friday (May 25) ahead of the country’s Democracy Day. In the video directed by Prodigeezy, Falz addressed issues plaguing Nigeria, from corrupt politicians to the Chibok/Dapchi girls kidnap, Internet fraud, Fulani herdsmen, Police brutality and more. He told BBC in an interview: ”It was important, first of all I was inspired by the original, This is America by Childish Gambino, I thought it was a very artistic and creative way to tell the American story and I thought it will be amazing to tell the Nigerian story in a similar fashion… It was very important to stir up a heightened level of political and social consciousness out here.’

Childish Gambino (Donald Glover) got the world reacting when he released “This Is America” on May 5, at the same time that the 34-year-old US entertainer was hosting Saturday Night Live and it debuted at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. Falz continued: “The video has been very well received, even initially when I was releasing it, I didn’t sort of anticipate the magnitude of reaction. I thought there will be some form of reaction and conversation but I didn’t know how largely it will be received.” This Is NIgeria’s music video which production lasted one week, now has over four million YouTube. Read what Falz has to say on the negative reviews the video has received: ”Majority of what I have been facing, in terms of backlash is just a matter of people that are trying to shoot the messenger so that they miss the message, but at the end of the day, the message is really clear and everyone knows that the message is the truth.”

Photo Credit: Geezy