How we wrongly procured Jubilee House footage - Meek Mill explains

In three tweets posted on January 9, 2023; American rapper Meek Mill explained the circumstances around which he filmed footage in and around the Jubilee House.

Government had been under incessant pressure to address how the rapper filmed footage when he visited President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in December 2022 when he was in town for the Afro Nation concert.

Mill apologized to Ghanaians and to the presidency for the manner in which a music video promo he had put together had generated controversy and heavy social media backlash.

He posted the video on his Instagram reel but switched to Twitter to render his apology.

“To the people of Ghana no video I drop is ever meant to disrespect the people of Ghana …. The fastest way to make connection is thru music and I wanted to do that with displaying art … im in my 30’s from America and didn’t know much about the lifestyle here,” his first apology tweet read.

He followed it up with another apology, again to the Ghanaian people but also the presidency:

"My apologies to the people if any disrespect! We still gonna push to make the connection between black people in America and Africa … what I’m trying to do is more than a video and you should see coming soon! My apologies to the the office also!" it read.

When a Ghanaian blogger tweeted that the outrage was not targeted at him per se but at the presidency, he explained how he procured the footage.

"I don’t think they knew it was video footage when we asked to shoot its a small camera and one kid … in America we didn’t know this existed and was excited to show because they don’t show Ghana on our media much! So I’ll take responsibility for my mistake! Not intentional," he added.

Watch the controversial video below

In the video, the rapper is sighted in different places at the presidency, from the frontage, through the main corridors, in the main conference hall – at a point positioned behind the presidential lectern - and later in a sitting area rapping.

Social media users are incensed about what they describe as near desecration of the presidency, citing moral and security grounds.

Major influencers on Twitter especially have attracted comments that are largely critical of government for allowing such sensitive areas to be filmed for a music video.

It must be noted that a small portion of the commenters are justifying it, stating that it is not too much of a big deal.

SARA