I was a hype-woman for King Of Boys

Pictured: Angela Davis. Photographer unknown

If you go over my resume, you’ll see that ‘great hype-woman’ is filed under my list of skills. As someone who often claims introversion, it’s surprising that I wrote it down without hesitation and unshakeable confidence.

I’ll be honest though, I can only hype that which I genuinely consider hype-worthy. I have no interest in sponsored nonsense.

Now, of course, I realize that some of the things written in resumes tend to be exaggerated and shouldn’t really be taken at face value because there’s the tendency for us — as Nigerians especially — to exaggerate our abilities.

Take this for example:

Packaging. That’s what we call it.

The first time I saw the banner for King of Boys, I scoffed and rolled my eyes. Another ‘modern’ Nigerian movie that’s probably crap, I thought. But then a few days later, something happened on Twitter; people were talking about it. They mentioned how it was strongly feminine — female director, strong female lead, etc. So, I got curious and went to see it.

I can confidently say that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Saturday after, I ‘gingered’ seven women to go see the movie. A movie they previously had no interest in, by the way.

We were all gathered in a small group, talking about random things. Then I asked “have you guys seen King of Boys? No one had.

The hype woman in me came out and I proceeded to tell everyone why it was such mad a mad movie that they absolutely had to watch.

If I were to break down my ‘tactics’, it’ll be like this:

1. Establish just how good the movie was. “Ohhh myyyyyy Godddddddd.” That’s literally how I started. “It was MAD!”, I proclaimed. When I first saw the poster, I thought it would be like one of those dead Nigerian movies (no offence, but I’m still not confident that spending 3k to watch Nigerian movie in the cinema would be worth it). But it was actually mad.
2. Emphasize unpredictability. I made it clear that the movie was laced with a clever plot twist. One unexpected for a Nigerian movie. (Don’t get me wrong, I love Nollywood
3. Tease a little. I dropped a few enticing snippets.
4. Get them to commit. There and then, I got everyone to agree on a time that day. It was a Saturday after all. FOMO swayed others who might have otherwise declined.
5. Ginger some more.
6. BYOT. We stated it there and then; everyone would buy their own ticket. It was a done deal.

At 7 pm, we all rendezvoused at the cinema. I and seven other women. I looked around thinking to myself “this is the shit they pay people for”.

All of this came to mind because some time ago, I was telling someone about Rihanna as a businesswoman and how she was able to tap into a cultural problem, provide a solution, and build a cult brand. Then after she dropped her line, every other brand was hopping on the countless-shades-of-foundation bandwagon. but Rihanna had already dropped the mic.

I tend to talk passionately about something I’m interested in or fascinated by. And when I do, I realize that people are moved. They want to experience it too, learn more about it, etc.

So while I would publicly claim introvert, the little I did for King of Boys made me realize that I’ve got something worth exploring.

This article is part of my 100-day creative project, “100 days of bad writing”. Inspired by what the journalist, Kiki Mordi, shared as the most meaningful writing advice she ever received — “bad writing is better than no writing”. You can follow everything I share on Instagram or explore what the 100-day project is all about.