I’m angrier than a DJ without strobe lights because I discovered this song and music video way later than everyone else. But that’s not going to stop me from reviewing it anyway. This week’s pick is Put ‘Em Up, a banger from a DJ called Edun, whose actual name is Alice Edun, a Nigerian-Russian artist.
She’s known for many other songs, but Put ‘Em Up was released in 2005, making this a very old music video. But it’s a good song and an excellent video, so why the hell not? And anyway, my house, my rules.
There are two different videos: the radio version and the extended version. Today, I will be discussing the radio version. It’s such a simple video that it’s right up there with fancier videos.
Most of the video consists of her singing in front of a green screen that shows the lyrics as she performs them, which is probably a welcome move by her deaf fans. And yes, the deaf and hard of hearing can enjoy music just like the rest of us, mostly through vibrations that are especially aggressive in songs such as this.
The only bad thing about this video is the unneeded extreme close-ups of her lips and up her nose, but what are you going to do, right?
By the way, the lyrics to the song are great, but they could have been even greater had they gone a slightly different way. “You make my day, I want you mine” is all well and good, but the first time I heard this song several years ago, way late to the party, I thought she was going to go with, “you make my day, I’ll make your night.” Ah, well.
Speaking of the green screen, the whole video’s pretty much done in front of one. It’s so simple yet elegant that it’s not off-putting to me. But I think they could have gone other ways, such as having her dance in a nightclub interspersed with footage of her standing in front of the screen.
All in all, this is a great music video for an awesome song, so it’s definitely worth a listen.