Artists should embrace technology - Chiyesu

Andrew Mulenga's Hole In The Wall: Artists should embrace technology - Chiyesu: By Andrew Mulenga He may be a graphic designer by profession, but Danny Chiyesu continues to juggle many hats which include those of a...

The Bebe Cool that stepped on tables – I miss that guy

This morning, I was busking in a glow of good music, Bebe Cool’s Never trust no people.
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.

Why you should attend a festival this year

Every year, on December 31, people look up to the sky as they wait for it to clock 12am; you know that announces the New Year. There, they make resolutions usually based on things they would like to see change in their lives.
Resolutions have always been about becoming healthier, working harder and probably settling down, very few times have people thought of the way they spend their free time. No one makes a resolution to probably give local creative more attention like the ones accorded to Nigerians.
Thus, we thought we could introduce to you a new way you can spend your free time this year; festivals.
World over, many of the festival celebrate excellence the arts in all genres, food, fashion, music, dance, theatre and culture among others.
In Uganda, there’s a belief that festivals target the rich or the minority white, who in our minds are crazy about African art and culture, most of the times we believe that such celebrations have nothing new to offer to us since we’ve grown up around everything they tend to glorify.
However, what many of such detractors forget is that glorifying what is uniquely ours is what makes us standout; Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast or Benin export more of their music to the west because of the X factor you will find on their songs – they play with local traditional instruments and thus, their sound is neither manipulated or emulated.
And that’s what festivals celebrate – authenticity.
Nothing against Nigerian or Jamaican emulation but It's easy to hate mainstream concerts. They have been commercialized that instead of basking in glow of good music, you will be hijacked by merchandises and some artiste screaming in a language he doesn’t understand. 
If that is not enough, concerts are highly confronted by the same names performing the same playlist on a CD backup, it becomes painful, even for devoted concert followers; like why brave the noise when you can listen to all that on your headsets.
Support local talent
It will be a good thing to celebrate and support our art for a change this year, that’s of course if it irks you that all artistes considered African legends are not Ugandan, they are names like Salif Keita, Angelique Kidjo Brenda Fassie, and Youssou N'Dour among others. With a festival, our artistes – the brilliant ones with an authentic bankable sound get to showcase to a spread audience of Ugandans, tourists and expatriates.
It is from such a stage that you will be recommended for bigger festivals and may be endorsements; all the names above are products of home support and now are African heavy hitters.
Discover new talent
Most of the times, radio presenters have been accused of failing to get off their seats to try look out for fresh talent and thus starve the public with the same music from the obvious names. Well, to break the jinx, may be try a festival, who can forget the excitement caused by an unknown reggae artiste Sandra from Jinja when she hit the Bayimba Stage last year or Slim Emcee’s enchanting performance at Rwanda’s Kigali Up.
The kinds of talent like Tamba, Sifa Kelele, Afrie and Burna MC among others are what festivals serve, stuff your candy cotton radio shows will not deliver.
Disapprove the president about arts
One of the most publicized art gatherings Uganda has seen was in 2004, dubbed House of Kaine, it was a fashion exhibit whose headlining designer was Natasha Kainembabazi, the first daughter. The event would later boost of the first family attendance and yes her creations were worth writing about.
Whenever there’s an arts event and it is shunned by the public, the president’s statement about arts being useless is proved right, even when his daughter is an arts buff too.
This year, if we show up in droves to all the festivals, the media will pay attention and definitely the president, who we guess may change his mind about them being stupid considering that a number of artistes have already been bankrolled to lighten up his campaign.
Employment purposes
Uganda has a critical unemployment problem, few artists have tried to create jobs for themselves but have still been rendered unemployed because of little support from the public. With everyone pursuing a white collar acceptable job, we have talented saxophonists, dancers, actors and musicians combing our streets in the name of job searching – these could possibly be your brothers and sisters. If we can create a culture of supporting the arts, starting this year, you will be surprised by the number of jobs we could have created.

Big Brother's Kacey Mo for tonight's Lantern Meet

Ellah and Kacey Mo addressing journalists

During the just concluded season of Big Brother, Kacey Mo used to be Ellah’s biggest fan; defended her, gave her more pieces of meat and yes! Endorsed her instead of M’bea who was also from Ghana.
Well this article has nothing to do about his Big Brother stay.
On Wednesday, the cry baby from Ghana landed at Entebbe from something quite very unusual, he will be headlining the Lantern Meet of Poets – yeah! I also didn’t know he was a poet!
He will be performing alongside other Ugandan poets and has promised to bring the house down with some of his crossover pieces like Sex Music, Electricity in my city and Ghana Ude among others.
His poetry has most of the times led him in trouble to the extent of being threatened with death; “I believe Africa is a community and whoever divided it into countries did more harm than good,” he says in one of his recitals.
Kacey notes that he’s in Uganda because he wants Ugandans to recognize him as one of their own without being judged as Ghanaian or West African; “we are all the same.”
Talking to Tsup Ug, Kacey says he went into Big Brother so that Africa could hear and listen to his voice, thus everytime he had a chance to perform; he never talked about flowers or shoes but issues that matter.

Lantern Meet's Kagai Peter, Ellah and Kacey

Kagai Peter, president of Lantern Meet of Poets, says they were impressed by Kacey's work thus felt the need of having him perform at today's show; "any body that speaks poetry speaks to our hearts, hope he will love the experience."Kacey’s style of poetry is a fusion of urban music and recitals.
The show kicks off at 7pm at the National Theatre this evening.

Ellah and Kacey pose for a picture

Why Bebe's Everywhere I Go is not yet here

With a few days to Christmas, Bebe Cool took to his Facebook page to wish his fans happy holidays, he asked them not to drink and drive because that would prevent them from getting into 2015.
He wasn’t yet done.
He noted that it was because of that reason that he would release the second single off his GO MAMA album, Everywhere I Go.
Of course Facebook was excited, Gagamel Phamily, probably the most active artiste group I’ve ever known started a countdown.
A week, two and almost amonth have passed since Bebe made his pledge and nothing is coming out. This has led to a series of speculations – why could a finished audio and video be taking forever to get to the screens.
Tsup Ug digs into possible reasons why Bebe’s Video is not yet here and why you may even wait longer than you anticipated.
Waiting on international Channels
When Bebe dropped Love you every day, it was a surprise, well, we knew he had done a video with Clarence Peters but didn’t know when it was coming out and then all of a sudden, as we were passing time on Channel O, the song was premiered.
Bebe may be waiting for the same good luck charm to premiere the song on international channels rather than local stations; this however could prove even too hard.
By Christmas time, Bebe had his Everywhere I Go video, it is believed he’s been trying to submit the video to all the international channels himself.
The premiere of Love you every day almost a day after Clarence Peter submitted it had more to do with his influence than the song content. Probably Bebe should let God Fathers push the video, they have influence and produce almost sixty percent of the videos on Channel O, Trace and MTV Base combined, he’s not P-Square or MiCasa that these channels are dying to have his stuff, that will come in time but as for now, he should let directors and producers push his videos because they can.
Create Anxiety
Another school of thought though argues that Bebe  may have announced the release date well aware that he wasn’t going to deliver, thus, with the increase in the waiting, the public is more anxious, almost every day, there’s a person asking themselves why the song is not on the airwaves.
We all know this dude is a showbiz person, he knows how to make people talk or even write about him, the delay could be intended to make people impatient, get them talking, which I believe he’s achieved now that we too are writing this post.
>>>>However, if it is true Bebe’s video is lying somewhere on a Channel O desk, he has to plan so fast. Right now, the cards are all playing in his favor, if he decides to release that video today or tomorrow, be sure it will go viral.
If he’s banking on Trace or MTV and they never deliver, he should man up and look beyond them, Africa has more than fifteen music channels like Sound City, Afro Music, ONE, AMTV, JAM TV and Africa Hit, all these are trying to tap on the market that’s being enjoyed by Channel O, Trace and MTV Base.
If all those TVs are playing your music, these others will be forced to pick it up or better Bebe could take a good use of local channels in different countries.
Like it or not, in Uganda, NTV, Bukedde, NBS and WBS are more watched than MTV Base, Channel O and Trace combined, and so is Citizen, KTN, NTV and KBC in Kenya. With all local East African local channels playing your music, you literally have a regional super hit that Channel O will any day kneel to have on their playlist.
All African countries Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Namibia among others have local stations that are popular than anything foreign, if Bebe can get them to play his song, which according to a paper in red was rejected, those elite channels will ask for forgiveness…..but before he loses sleep! Was Sitya Loss premiered on Channel O?

Deceptions 5 promises more drama

“Oli musiru  oba oli mujega” – Maama Nalweyiso
Hello everyone, and welcome to what promises to be a fantastic season of Deceptions, that’s if the trailer and the first episode that was screened at Club Guvnor on Monday are anything to go by.
Surprisingly, it was the season five premiere of probably the biggest TV drama at the moment (one would wonder when season four aired but that’s not the discussion today, lets hope they will let us know when five ends that we don't meet again next year to be told seven is on.)
As you could imagine, the show ended on a high, all the lies, the baby, a couple of revelations and the missing Lillian.
The season opened with Lillian being dumped off by a van, this was after she had been given one hell of a beating by one of the various bad guys on the show. (see they have too many of them and one struggles with emotions)
Did i mention Lillian was a diva even when she was unconscious?
Maama Nalweyiso, as you can see in the quotation above, is amazing, she has the best adlibs on the show, I guess she has fully learnt to live her character even off the screen.
Now that Lillian is hurt, we assume Gilbert will gain mysterious super powers and kill that Bataka guy for hurting her, I think it will be a good opportunity for the writers to kill off that character, watching him is pain enough, that's if he's behind it all.
This season boosts of better scripting and editing, I guess the cast is very comfortable with the roles that these days they don’t pretend to be the characters, they live those lives.
There were problems however with the first scene, I feel like we spent almost a minute watching Monica crying for a heavily beaten  Lillian, that time could have been used to move the story further, not that the scene was useless, it was prolonged for no reason.
Then there were continuity issues like how Chris mysteriously grew a mustache, yet he had none in the ‘previously’ of the same scene.
Pretty Katende has since changed her hair style to tinted one inch, thus am hoping the story will try to explain her change of style, otherwise it is a good story and we can’t wait for the episode tonight.

May be too early to write off the Obsessions

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We may wonder if any of us is still obsessed with Obsessions! Some think Ronnie Mulindwa should just give the idea up and do other things.
After more than five years without music or a stage production from the group, last month at National Theatre, Mulindwa unveiled the new generation of Obsessions.
They are one of Uganda’s most recognizable entertainment brands and have risen from issues of member departures almost every two years and thus, this was a defining moment for a troupe that has been hit with a number of sex allegations.
This was not your ordinary unveiling, they premiered the new girls’ music and a new play; Goddess of the Nile.
Mulindwa, the playwright and director of the production delves into palace intrigues that follow the death of a king who doesn’t leave a male heir behind (yes, a typical Obsessions play).
With a throne vacant, the two older daughters are doing their best to get at least one of their favorite younger siblings to marry a prince from the neighboring superior kingdom who will in turn take the throne.
The play soundtracks are mostly spot on especially with the way they relate to the plot plus, in relation to the title of the play title, they incorporated music like Kiganda and Arabic drums with flutes and melodies from Northern Africa, a complete Nile rhythm.
Being a group that came from a dancing background, they still rule when it comes to the sector - the play had a number of dance sequences that indeed synched with the storyline. Arabi (Natasha Amara a.k.a Tasha) did a superb job seducing the Prince Babongine (Mulindwa) with a sexy  routine, then a transition that led to the introduction of the queen was beautifully incorporated with contemporary and African moves on a rather gothic soundtrack, fearful as it sounded, it was also inviting that it made the audience want to join in.
The Obsession’s new cast was assembled over eight months back after a country wide talent search.
“We’ve trained them for about six months and it has been hard for many of them considering the fact that many are first time actors,” he said.
The new singing trio is comprised of Lilian Nabuuma a.k.a Liana, Tasha, Josephine Jesica a.k.a Jay Jay, their new singles like Mbuulira, Ontute Omwoyo and Ddalu are easy to digest and all have been released with worthy videos, which may partly explain why many people at the show could easily sing along.
The dancing group on the other hand has employed four boys and that same number of girls. Their first performance wasn’t disappointing though with many dance troops mushrooming and others turning to music, the new Obsessions has to work their skins off to match the legendary shoes they are trying to assume.

2015, films to look out for in the first quarter

A still from Wako

The year 2014 was promising, very promising.
Paresh Gondaliya and Aaron Alone Zziwa gave us The Superstition, Hussien Omar’s The Counselor to the cotton candy Escape from Uganda, it was a good year.
This even promises to be bigger, at least as you read, three big productions are ready for the halls.
Aaron Alone Zziwa teams up with another brilliant mind Brighton Natuhwera to do Wako, a film about a reformed gangster that goes back to his crime days to save a sister suffering from cervical cancer.
Jayant Maru gets back to the director’s chair to deliver K3NT & KAT3, which is tale of an eight-year old boy who fails miserably in his tests and exams and just cannot get anything right in his class.
Kennedy Kihire too comes back with New Intensions; it revolves around an adopted little girl Wellona and struggles in a new home

In Reality (Douglas Benda),

Galz About Town (Hassan Mageye),

Tik Tok (Usama Mukwaya),

The Road We Travel (Aidan Belizaire)...