Lauren Baker, one of the producers who worked on Beyonce’s ‘Black Is King’ visual album which featured Ghana’s Shatta Wale’ on the song titled ‘Already’ has shed light on how the music video came about.

According to her, the music video for ‘Already’ was the first and only one which was planned for The Lion King’s soundtrack album; The Gift.

“The entire idea came from just one music video. We were just going to shoot “Already” and that escalated into a short mini-film. 15 minutes tops. That escalated into the film that you see today,” the Parkwood Entertainment producer stated.

Kwasi Fordjour who happens to be the Creative Director of Parkwood Entertainment (Beyoncé’s record label) and co-director of Black Is King also said, “She [Beyonce] mentioned doing a test shoot [for “Already”] and she’s the type of creator where it’s just like, let’s get the most out of this moment. If it’s good, we’re going to use it. We were testing the body paint and seeing if the body paint was going to work.”

“We were like, “how can we use her time wisely?” We’re at her house in the Hamptons. We noticed a tree. It’s an elevated plane. [It] could be anywhere. Let’s try this. I had to get in the tree first, that was the deal. I showed her the shot and that’s how that happened. We were able to use that shot. That’s kind of how we roll.”

Although the album received negative reviews from angry Africans who believed their culture was exploited and ‘vultured’, the ‘Black Is King’ album has received a nomination for the ‘Best Music Film’ award at the 2021 Grammy Awards.

Source: Museafrica.com