There was a moment during the filming of Ash Hamman’s latest music video when, while miming to camera, the R&B singer’s prized diamond ring shot off his finger, bounced on the edge of the five-bedroom superyacht where the shoot was taking place – and plopped into the sea.
The ring was, in his own words, "expensive" (I promised not to say exactly how expensive). But that custom-made, five-figure finger-piece mounts to just a fraction of what was spent on the three-day Dubai shoot for his new single, Wahala.
A cool Dh850,000 – which is claimed to be the most ever spent on a music video in the Emirates.
And what was the money used for? That tried-and-tested formula of flash cars, luxurious yachts and beautiful girls – just a few more of them than anybody else.
“I said before I started: ‘I want to make a statement,’” says the UAE-based, Nigerian-born performer. “Let me do what everybody’s doing, but do it on a larger scale – because I can.
“I said OK, people want to use one Lamborghini? I want five Lamborghinis. People want to use one chopper? I want seven choppers. People want one girl? I got seven girls. People want one yacht? I got seven yachts – you know what I’m saying?
“Why? Just ’cause.”
In the end, Hamman rounded up a fleet of 13 exotic cars, three yachts and 40 female models.
However, he had to compromise a little on the helicopters – instead, footage was captured using five flying drones at locations that included Meydan, JBR and Dubai Marina.
“Everything was more than one,” adds Hamman.
He clearly wanted to make a splash. And it worked: featuring guest vocals from Nigerian stars Igho and Orezi, Wahala is already a huge viral hit, clocking more than 160,000 free downloads worldwide since its April release.
The video isn't out until August – although it's already getting plenty of press attention. African media have declared Wahala the most-expensive video ever by a Nigerian artist. MTV and Clouds TV were present at the shoot. This splash seems set to become a tidal wave.
Wahala is Nigerian slang for trouble, and the filming was not short of its problems, with Hamman's lost ring just one of the disasters he encountered. Orezi missed his flight and only made the last day of the shoot. The sea-bus they had arranged – a vehicle that can be used on water and land – had to be scrapped. The flying drones nearly crashed during a sudden storm. And a model jumped into a Jacuzzi, soaking a Dh376,000 Red Dragon camera.
“The song is all about a beautiful girl who just causes trouble – because she’s beautiful. And she’s trouble,” explains Hamman.
“I lost friends. The artist missed his flight. They forecast the worst storms. A lot of madness happened – I was like: ‘How much worse can it get?’” That was when the ring was swallowed up by the sea. It turns out things could get a lot worse. Recalling that day, Hamman’s head is still a kaleidoscope of emotions.
“Everybody laughs at that story – it’s funny now, at the time it was very depressing,” he says. “You can still see the mark on my hand – four years I had that ring and it never came off. I don’t really wear bling but this was nice and simple and it meant a lot to me.”
An up-tempo, Afro-infused banger – which name drops Abu Dhabi more than once – Wahala is a change of direction for Hamman, who is best known for his cool, silky chart-friendly R&B. But this change was all an accident, a single day's inspiration when the 31-year-old hooked up with old friends Igho and Orezi in a Nigerian studio last summer.
“We were just sitting there vibing on tracks and they were like: ‘Ash, you’re too foreign, come here and do some Nigerian stuff – African music is the future.’
“I just did it on the spot and then we left the track sitting on my laptop for more than a year. I have more than 1,000 tracks on my laptop I haven’t put out and this was just one of them.”
More than just a musical shift, Wahala is also something of a comeback.
Born in Nigeria as Abdul Sammir Hamman, but raised mostly in the United Kingdom and United States, Hamman became better known as Ash while a teenager, scoring a No 1 on the UK garage charts with Bounce 2 This in 2003.
After moving to Dubai seven years ago, he made an immediate impact on the scene and went on to support the likes of Kanye West, Akon, Usher and 50 Cent when they passed through.
In 2011, Hamman released his self-titled debut album. Propelled by singles such as Body 'n' Soul, a year later the album was clocked by Virgin Megastores as the seventh-best-selling by a UAE act. He also launched his own range of sunglasses by Carrera.
But, despite a steady stream of singles and videos, in recent years Hamman has been happy to keep a lower profile, concentrating instead on his production company, Immaqul'8 Entertainment, which produced the Wahala video.
With another Afro-flavoured follow-up to Wahala in the works, Hamman's priorities appear to have shifted. He might have lost the ring, but right now he has a lot to gain.
“Dubai is beautiful, it’s home to me, but I’m trying to reach out,” he says. “I don’t want my music to stop here.
“A lot of people say: ‘I want to be underground.’ That’s not true, because you got to pay bills – and your bills are not underground.”
• Listen to Wahala at www.ashhamman.com
rgarratt@thenational.ae
