At a tender age, that was the first Ugandan reggae song I fell in love with, I felt like dude sang from the heart.
Then months later, he was nominated for over seven awards at the inaugural PAM awards, he lost all of them, even when he had minders that had promised him he would sweep the gong table clean.
That night of 4 October, I had escaped from school to attend the gala, I saw a more hurt Bebe Cool perform Never trust no people for his dog (he came on stage with a dog), this was slightly after losing the last award he was nominated for, it was the first time I decided to pay attention to his work.
But before I could pledge my support to this guy, he was already up dancing on top of the queen’s table; that was the last awards show the poor lady attended.
That Bebe Cool was rogue, rough on the edges but really talented – when you listened to his stuff, it was easy to tell he spent time creating his art.
His 2004 album Maisha is probably one of the best compilations that have come out of the three artistes; Bebe, Chameleone and Bobi Wine combined.
His only problem however was thinking way ahead of the industry he was performing in and it came back to haunt him – the album didn’t produce hits.
The highly Hip Hop inspired Superstar and Bad man status alongside Klear Kut must have been heavy for an industry that is yet to appreciate rap even in 2015, then Bad boy alongside Nameless, Dadanjo which featured the late K-Rupt, Sikiriza with Irene Namubiru’s sister Yvette (where the hell is this girl?) and the lead single Maisha were out of this world but as you may know, the public instead chose that Gaetano song over the thirteen that made the album.
Then, Bebe Cool performed in Swahili, English and Luganda, there were a few songs he did with bits of Kinyarwanda or Lusoga and it was just fine, his songs were either reggae roots or dancehall yet he was more than a one dimension artiste.
On one of his shows, he had Nameless, Wyre, Nazizi, Prezzo, Dudu Baya and Red San, oh alongside Zari to curtain raise - at the time, this was an East African music industry in one place. Yes! Commanding respect without asking for it.
That Bebe Cool never tried to prove a point to anyone. Never promised but delivered.
Dude just made things happen and that was the beauty of it all.
Today, the public is more appreciative especially to good music; they would openly appreciate all the good things Bebe tried out with Nameless, Yvette and others than they did eleven years back.
If the current Bebe could summon Cool bits of his former self – well that’s without those performances in G-Strings, or stepping on delegates tables, music will be headed to a good direction, now that he has many wannabe Bebe Cools.
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