One of my favourite memories of the era of Kidandali I grew up in was the spirited rivalry between the leading artistes of those days.The so called Big 3 of Bobi Wine,Bebe Cool and Jose Chameleone all feuded with one another at some point,to great fanfare.
First, the early days of the millennium saw Bobi and Bebe gang up on Jose with Funtula, which prompted him to respond with Nekolera Maali.The former two then spectacularly fell out with each other just five years later.
What followed was half a decade of legacy-defining music which spawned the original Battle of the Champions and gave fans such hit songs as Kasepiki,Mr.Kataala,Ndiisa Buti and By Far,to mention but a few,that those who were there to witness still reminisce about.
The emergence of Radio and Weasel in 2008 seasoned things up even more as the nascent force battled not just their erstwhile boss and mentor Chameleone,dropping Sitaani and Camilla on his head,but also Bebe Cool,who they taunted with Zuena in the aftermath of the older star’s woman leaving and then returning to him.It was brash.It was disrespectful and it was all very very fun.
The democratization of music has given more people access to studios and airplay and there is an avalanche of songs, but something about kidandali music today feels hollow. My honest opinion is that this is, at least partly, due to the absence of serious beef between the prominent musicians. It isn’t that there is no beef. It is that the beef either involves one artiste past the peak of their powers, or is so half-hearted it quickly becomes boring. See Sheebah vs Cindy for reference.
Advocates of the mature approach will disagree,but there is an authenticity and relatability that bad blood between big artistes in their prime gives their music.Not only does it inspire the creative process as each tries to outdo the other,it also gets fans more emotionally invested as they defend their respective stars.Just look at hip hop in the wake of Kendrick Lamar and Drake trying to obliterate each other over the past few months.
So I was really delighted to belatedly find out that Sheebah’s remix of Yung Mulo’s infectious dancehall tune Sipimika is actually a diss aimed at on and off nemesis Spice Diana.
The two have fallen out, made up and then fallen out again over the past three years or so, with the current conflict kicking off at the beginning of last year, after Sheebah-affiliated dancer and social media personality Rita Dancehall was arrested and accused of defamation, allegedly on orders from Spice and her manager Roger Lubega, in the aftermath of comments she made on social media criticizing the Kwata Wano hitmaker’s performance at her Siri Regular Concert.
The expected fireworks did not materialize immediately, as Sheebah struggled to stay on her feet after parting ways with long time manager Jeff Kiwanuka of T.N.S, and also focused her attentions on Cindy Sanyu. She loves a fight,this Sheebah, and I love her for it.
And then apparently out of the blue she hopped on Sipimika with a fiery bombastic verse written by elite penman Dokta Brain, declaring herself the kanyama who can’t be compared to birungo. The Star-gyal didn’t waste any time firing back, releasing Twookya, where she calls out Sheebah for, among other things, being a fake Swag Mama and a fake feminist. Not quite the vitriolic exchanges of Bobi versus Bebe or Goodlyfe versus Chamilli, but absolutely hilarious scenes nonetheless.
There are voices in the industry who claim this “beef” is a shallow attention stunt by the two to maintain relevance in the absence of funds to market their music, but this doesn’t hold up to scrutiny as Lubega is not frugal about investing in Spice Diana’s career. But even if that were the case, should we care? Isn’t it so amusing to watch, made up or not? Is entertainment not the whole point of showbiz?
Personally I am hoping Sheebah drops another diss-track, hopefully a solo single this time and then Spice Diana responds. Then we will have a proper dust up on our hands. That might just be the sort of thing that invigorates kidandali.
