The dusk of 1999 had had Juliana
Kanyomozi and Iryn Namubiru team up to form the pioneer millennial Ugandan girl
group that they called I-jay, gliding under the parental tutelage of Hope
Mukasa and Steve Jean’s Fenon Records. Like the rest of the groups that sprang
after them, J-Jay could not run for long, eventually trading the partnership
for solo careers.
Juliana and Iryn were only the
picks of the Fr. Damian Grimes generation of Namasagali products and their
cronies who would go on to change the face of the entertainment industry. The other
notable alumni of this entertainment colossus of yesteryear include Benon
Mugumbya, Peter Miles, Ronnie Mulindwa, Vampino (Elvis Kirya).
In 2004, The Obsessions, a
female-dominated group that initially started out as dancers, then took the
industry by storm, reveling in a unique style of performances that combined
music and dance. Their breakthrough was spurred by Nod Your Head, a hit single
that had youthful crowds eating out of their palms.
In their ensemble was Ronnie
Mulindwa, Michael Kasaija, Natasha Sinayobe, Cleopatra Koheirwe, Sharon O,
Brenda Nambi, Jackie Tumusiime and Hellen Lukoma. They would later be joined by
a host of others such as Sheba Karungi, Daisy Muber, and Fatuma Gulam.
Closely following their footsteps
were the Dream Girls, another girl-group that had been started in 2003 and
would go on to win a Pearl of Africa Music (PAM) Award the following year.
They had songs such as Genda
Okole, Nsaanuka, Weekend and Jiggy; the most prominent members of which were
Leila Kayondo, Renah Nalumansi and Anita Tushabe. The sudden departure of Leila
and Renah in 2007 spelled the group’s demise.
In 2004, the Coca Cola Popstar
winning trio of Jackie Chandiru, Cinderella Sanyu (Cindy) and Lillian Mbabazi
were brought together to form Blu*3; yet another girl group that enjoyed
initial success until Cindy’s acrimonious departure in 2008.
The demise might have taken
longer, but the countdown had started. Blue*3 was known for the pop songs:
Hitaji, Burn, Frisky, Tomalaako (featuring Ragga Dee), Nsanyuka Naawe, Ndibeera
Nawe, Nkoye and the blockbuster collabo with Goodlyfe: “Where You are”.
Four years later, another girl
group had sprung up. At their ephemeral peak, Viva Starts once had, in its
ranks, Jacky “Swing Swaga” Katushabe, Sarah “America” Nangendo, Sauda “Toto”
Nakato, Racheal Nakasaga and Sara “China” Baku. With a couple of hits to their
name, Chilli Girls had a promising start to their career until Universal
Entertainment, the company that had signed them, closed shop in 2011.
Universal Entertainment had been businessman
Rao Mohan’s brainchild. His sudden loss of interest in music and the related
challenges he faced meant that the string of girl groups he had taken on could
not carry on. The girl-group under his management was called “The Cyclones” and
had, in their ranks, singers Esther Akankwasa, Lisa Namubiru and Pie B (Prossy
Bulyaba).
More and more girl groups would
continue to rise and fall in similar fashion, the most prominent of which
included former Obsessions deserters HB Toxic (Hellen Lukoma and Brenda Nambi),
Wafagio (who first rebranded to Krystal Babes before they folded).
While all this happened,
something else had been cooking. A couple of years before the curtain came down
on the 90s, two ambitious upstarts had endured two separate 12-hour bus trips
to the cold streets of Nairobi as they sought for career breakthroughs.
Moses Katumba Ssali – or Bebe
Banton – as he preferred to be called then, was one of them. As anyone would
probably have guessed, Bebe had been inspired by the Jamaican dancehall artiste
Buju Banton.
It was in Nairobi that he would
meet Joseph Mayanja, going on to form a situational friendship that would them
return as Bebe Cool and Jose Chameleone respectively. Bebe Cool went on to team
up with Bobi Wine to form Firebase Crew while Jose Chameleone started Leone
Island, riding the crest of a successful Bageya album in 2000 to build a
fanbase.
For a long time, the trio ruled
the industry in a trident of dominance that saw them constantly referred to as
the “Big Three.” until the emergence of Chameleone’s former protegees in Radio
and Weasel, in 2008.
The Big Three would go on inspire
a whole generation of singers, dabbling in varied music styles that spanned
across and beyond the continent; the most predominant of which came to be
called Kidandali, typified by a signature danceable beat and oft-shallow
lyrical content. Perhaps the local equivalent of bubble-gum music. The rest of
the styles were usually fusions of existing styles – Kwaito, Soukous, ragga,
reggae, zouk and flashes of Rumba.
Shades of this influence remain
apparent, to this day. It’s the reason the industry still has genres like
dancehall being done in a mishmash of lingua, both local and adulterated
mimicry of Jamaican patois. It’s the reason we’ve had lyrics like “Bolobi
ndenge nini bana Congo” (Chameleone, in Beyi Kali) or “Natomoni miso na ngai na
likolo namoni te” (David Lutalo, in Ujuwe).
It’s the reason we have patois
ambassadors like Peter Miles (Peter Kanyike), Beenie Gunter (Crescent Baguma), Bebe Cool, Ziza Bafana (Moses
Kasendwa), Raba Daba (Faisal Seguya) and Weasel (Douglas Seguya).
Bobi Wine, Bebe Cool and Jose
Chameleone acquired cult status, overshadowing established industry veterans
while mentoring budding artistes in the process.
Immediate mentees of the time
included artistes like Master Parrot (David Sifayo), Toolman (Fredrick
Kibalama), Buchaman (Mark Bugembe), Kid Fox (Stephen Kiggundu), Sweet Kid
(Moses Sserwadda), Black Boy, Red Banton (Tony Lubega), Weatherman (RIP), and a
few others.
Each of the three had a unique
impact on the industry. Jose Chameleone literally forced the industry to
recognize the importance of lyrical finesse and depth; what with his regular
rhyming song-theming that had his music make inroads in the industry.
His finesse remains apparent in more
than a dozen albums to his name so far: Bageya (2000), Mama Mia (2001), Njo
Karibu and The Golden Voice (2003), Mambo Bado (2004), Kipepeo (2005), Shida za
Dunia (2006), Katupakase (2007), Bayuda (2009), Vumilia (2010), Valu Valu
(2012), Badilisha (2013), Tubonge (2014), Wale wale (2015), Sili Mujjawo
(2016), Sweet Banana (2017) and Champion (2018).
After a second-consecutive PAM
Awards Artiste of the Year award (that came with five million prize money), he
was said to have remarked that he now saw the prize money was beginning to look
like an annual paycheque.
Bebe Cool fostered the rise to
prominence of songwriters at a time when everybody thought an artiste was only
worth their salt if they wrote their music. Through him, we got to know people
like Chizzo, Black Skin, St. Andrew, Nince Henry and scores of others.
His biggest influence in this
respect, so far, remains “Love You Every day”, the 2015 Magnus Opus that had
featured musical input of no less than four songwriters. He gave upcoming
producers like Rinex and Eno Beats the platform they needed to rise to
prominence.
This was the generation that gave
birth to Showbiz in Uganda. While Bebe Cool became the mind games expert, Bobi
played the academic and edutainment card.
They set the foundation for the
latest crop of musicians – musicians who commanded some respect in society.
Artistes who had gone to school and chosen music. Bobi Wine’s Music Dance and
Drama (MDD) played a role in this. He was the guy who inspired every graduate
to follow their passion.
At 26, he’d already acquired some
valuable property in Magere. For a while, the media couldn’t have enough of it
while Bebe Cool, now a sworn rival, continued to be taunted for not owning property
worth his stature. Showbiz had fully taken root in the entertainment industry.
Erstwhile low on Showbiz, the
world soon came to know that Jose Chameleone had accumulated some wealth of his
own. Every single acquisition an artiste owned became their status symbol.
Artistes acquired cars and held veiled pressers to showcase their might. The
latter part of the 2000s would see the industry’s influence transcend
entertainment and into other spheres.
Artistes joined politics,
directly or otherwise, starting with the contingent of Artistes who were hired
by the ruling party of the time to drum up support in the run to the 2016
General elections; in a campaign-drive code-named: “Tubonga Nawe”.
This would be the springboard for
Bobi Wine, barely 12 months later, as the 35-year-old trounced a hoard of
competitors – both state and otherwise – to claim the Kyadondo East
Parliamentary seat in 2017.
He joined fellow artistes Judith
Babirye (Buikwe, Woman) and Kato Lubwama (Rubaga South). Today, the industry
sees more artistes expressing political interests in the respective home areas;
artistes that include, among others, Jose Chameleone (Mayorship, Kampala City),
Geoffrey Lutaaya (Kakuto), Khalifa Aganaga (Rubaga South), Dr. Hilderman
(Mawokota), Ronald Mayinja (Gomba East) and Mathias Walukagga (Masaka
Municipality).