“I Go Chop Your Dollar”: The Nigerian Music Video about Email Scams

You may have missed this on MTV: the famous Nigerian 419 confidence scam – the one that involves asking gullible Internet users for money by email – has an anthem. “I Go Chop Your Dollar,” Nkem Owoh’s title track from the 2005 comedy “The Master,” a Nigerian film about the lives of criminals who practice 419 scams, is as catchy as Nollywood music gets, and apparently became a huge hit in Lagos before it was banned by the authorities.

“Oyinbo man I go chop your dollar,” sings Owoh, using a word for “white man.” “I go take your money and disappear / 419 is just a game, you are the loser I am the winner.”

Though the song may have been meant as a dramatization, its sentiments are real, not least for Owoh. In 2007, two years after the song was released, the actor and singer was arrested in Amsterdam as part of a crackdown on a series of lottery-based (419-lite) scams.

I Go Chop Your Dollar

I don suffer no be small
Upon say I get sense
Poverty no good at all, ooo
Na im make I join this business

419 no be thief, it’s just a game
Everybody dey play em
if anybody fall mugu,
ha! my brother I go chop em

Chorus:
National Airport na me get em
National Stadium na me build em
President na my sister brother
You be the mugu, I be the master

Oyinbo man I go chop your dollar,
I go take your money disappear
419 is just a game, you are the loser I am the winner

The refinery na me get em,
The contract, na you I go give em
But you go pay me small money make I bring em
you be the mugu, I be the master…
na me be the master ooo!!!!

When Oyinbo play wayo,
dey go say na new style
When country man do him own,
them go dey shout: bring em, kill em, die!

That Oyinbo people greedy, I say them greedy
I don see them tire
That’s why when they fall into my trap o!
I dey show them fire

A translation by Azuka Nzegwu and Adeolu Ademoyo:

I am suffering greatly
and I get this idea (or wise)
poverty is not good at all
and I decide to join this business (scam)

419 is not a criminal act but a game
Everybody will play
but if you are fool
I will chop your money

Chorus:

I own the National Airport
I built the National Stadium
The president is my sister’s brother
You are the fool and I am the master

White man, I will eat your dollar
I will take your money and disappear
419 is just a game, you are the loser and I am the winner

I own the refinery
I will give you the contract
But you will have to pay me a small fee before I bring them
You are the fool, I am the master
I am the master!!!!

When whites scam
it is said that it is a new style
But when the country man does the same
White people shout: bring them, kill them, die!

White people are greedy, I say they are greedy
I have seen through them deeply (or very well)
So, when they fall into my trap
I will show them fire (or showing someone who is the real boss by treating them harshly)

See our documentary on the Sakawa Boys.