Nothing is as enjoyable to a critic as doling out a magnum of criticism. Nothing makes a critic impatient as that moment when they await to call someone’s bluff, especially a pseudo-artiste on their claims. So it was for Bad Black when she promised that her next project after prison was a musical one. Like really?
If Mud Guard is a video to go by, then Bad Black is off to a rocket start. What you encounter in this music video is not Bad Black the socialite, you see a queen of reinvention, an artiste who takes her work seriously, one who takes on a resemblance to Irene Ntale (by looks).
Set in a sugarcane plantation, the video details the love-life of this couple that works on the plantation. We start off with the superb, serenading aerial view of the green fields that make this plantation a location to kill for. This is blended with the evening equatorial sunshine setting over the horizon. This setting sunlight plays out in tandem with Bad Black while she does the laundry with clothes hanging by the lines. It brings out a certain coherence and believability.
In a well-timed manner, the video begins to peak and evolve. We have Bad Black turning out in a contemporary African fashion, the husband is still manning the dirt-beaten farm tractor, and these contradictions of love are a true manifestation of her willingness to be his mud guard.
The video never at one points runs out of options to entice the viewer. It picks and drops scenes with a certain careless abandon yet with a flowing story. Another scene which is the highlight is the rush off to a mini-picnic in the vintage Volkswagen car. In this video, Bad Black attains a fair degree of renaissance, that ability to do many things.
