Egyptian Lover - 'Freak-A-Holic'

For our second stab at classic videocraft, we turn to the 'Electro Pharoah' himself...

Egyptian Lover (not his real name, fact fans. As much as I wished for a Mr & Mrs Lover to have named their son 'Egyptian', he's actually called Greg Broussard) was there from hip-hop's earliest days, DJ'ing dances at the LA Sports Arena with Uncle Jamm's Army. After releasing a slew of classic 12" singles, he would release some of the very earliest rap albums, none of which were as good as those singles (check out his all-time classic 'Egypt, Egypt'), but had a nice line in Egyptian / sexy titles: 'On The Nile', 'Filthy', Back From The Tomb', 'One Track Mind', 'Platinum Pyramids', 'King Of Ecstasy', and the inspired 'Pyramix' to name but most of them.

Here's the Lover in his best video, 'Freak-A-Holic', from the 'One Track Mind' LP. A corker of a song, and a fantastic video to boot:



THE PLOT:
Poor Egyptian Lover is plagued by vivid hallucinations. Beautiful (mostly), half-clad women (or 'Freaks' - this was 1986, remember) haunt him day and night, until he can no longer tell reality from fantasy. To seek respite (and calm his raging stalk-on), Egyptian responds to an advert in the Yellow Pages for 'Freak-A-Holics Anonymous'. There, all his fantasies and dreams are made real...

WHY IT'S BRILLIANT:
-0:01. Yes, just one second in and we're blinded by genius. "1-2-3-4, uh! Freak this!"
-0:04. He can bodypop, too.
0:22 to 0:37. An absolute masterclass in hand movements, here. Especially his hand signals for 'Egyptian Lover'.
0:40. "TELL 'EM WHAT I AM!" Our boy can do dramatic, as well.
0:47. There are far too many great 'small' moments to count in this video, so we'll just point out this great 'hair stroke' and leave the enjoyment of discovering the rest to you, dear reader, and concentrate on the main points.
0:51 to 0:53. Sarcaphogus! And who's this inside it?!?
1:15 to 1:17. A moment that would not look out of place in an episode of The Krankies or Crackerjack or something like that. Brilliant reaction from the Lover, though.
1:30. So... is this Egyptian Lover's dad? He's just mentioned his dad in the song, and that's his car, but... he's white! He's a dream anyway, so I suppose it doesn't matter.
1:57. Egyptian's comedy double act with the mummy continues.
2:17 to 2:30. Nothing, but nothing, says '1986' like this shot. A white void, filled with dry ice and party balloons appears to be the meeting place for 'Freak-A-Holics Anonymous'. No less than two keyboard players, another one on one of those keyboard-guitar combos, a bevy of beauties in their undies, and a couple of spangly poofs doing the greatest jerky dancing known to man. Makes a change from a dusty church hall, a load of school chairs and standing up to say you've been sober for three days, I suppose.
2:51. And that's it, apart from the bizarre 'A-huh, a-huh, a-huh' bit at the end.

I imagine Egyptian Lover is there still, living out every single one of his fantasies with those freaks (and not just the ones about ingesting dolls heads, pooing them out, boiling them up and then ingesting them again. I think that's a real fantasy. Might have made that one up).

In reality, Egyptian Lover is still touring! In 2009, he released the 'Electro Pharoah' EP and is currently doing Arenas, clubs and festivals.

Nice one, lad.