Heart melting Performance: I Go Chop Your Dollar

My weekend was filled with a good feeling after coming across a video clip on Friday night—a clip that I kept playing on repeat and couldn't have enough of. A clip that brought back good memories and got me smiling as I played it and reminisced about the fun surrounding the moment.

It was a video clip of Nkem Owoh, popularly known as Osuofia, performing his hit track, “I Go Chop Your Dollar.” The video is not up to the standard of a classic music performance as we see in the works of A-list artists today. It was just a mere coming on stage to sing the song while there was an organic instrumental playing in the background. His presence alone, handling the mic and acting exactly the way we know him to be—just as he performed in the original music video—was everything to me. I couldn't help but wish I was there live to witness such a moment.

One thing about watching such a video is that you'll feel it even more when you go through the comments associated with it. Passing through those comments and seeing things like “This song is Grammy-worthy” and “Osuofia has paid his dues” got me nostalgic.

Take a look at the video—isn't it fun and lovely to watch? You can't watch this without singing along. No way! Except for the non-Africans here.
A song that's not morally right lyrically, yet because of the fun and the artist behind it, we embraced it as entertainment.

The song is about duping, which we commonly call “419.” A song that promotes this crime, yet it was taken from one of the movies he acted in titled “The Master.”

The main video

Oh yes, Nkem Owoh is not actually a musician—he is a Nollywood actor, a veteran in the industry who clocked 70 last month (February 2025). A man who was and still is very good in comic movies, known both at home and abroad. I remember having a conversation with Humbe, a non-Nigerian, and along the line, she mentioned how this actor was one of the favorites in her country. I was wowed to hear a non-Nigerian say that.

This actor decided to have a play with music—just an album—and it blew up. His songs were played everywhere, and this one, “I Go Chop Your Dollar,” was the biggest hit because of its funny and simple lyrics.

At the time of writing this (2025), the song is 17 years old. It was released in 2008, and those of us who were born and sensible at that time know how trendy this song was. We played and watched it through CD and VCD formats, respectively.

Osuofia performing the song, although not in the same tone and standard as before, deserves a big applause. He never forgot a single line of it. For sure, that song needs no rehearsal to perform—even those of us who were born when it was released can still sing it from A to Z.

Thanks for reading.

Video source: YouTube
Photo: freepik