Ten years later, Bebe attempts to Break the Chains

On October 4, 2003, Bebe Cool changed Ugandan music for good.He did not have a concert that day but it was the day Uganda held the first edition of the premier award show, Pearl of Africa Music Awards, also known to many as the PAM awards. 

Bebe Cool, alias Big Size was nominated for as many awards--- Best Male Artiste, Artiste of the Year, Song of the Year for his Gaetano, Best Ragga Song for King of the Jungle, and Burn Dem and Best Ragga Artist, among others. He lost each of these awards to mainly Jose Chameleone and Ragga Dee. Yet, after these high profile awards, newspapers, magazine shows and radio presenters were talking about Bebe Cool for nearly two weeks. We can say he indeed went viral, in today’s terms.  That night of October 4, Bebe Cool stepped up to perform, Never Trust No People for his dog (he came on stage with a dog).  

After losing the last award he was nominated for, it was the first time many people were paying attention to his work. During that performance, Bebe Cool made a bold move stepping on top of the table, where the queen, Nabagereka Slyvia Nagginda was seated. Much as none of the glasses broke or drinks were spilled, Bebe Cool became a subject of rebuke and bewilderment in equal measures. That Bebe Cool was rogue, rough on the edges, but really talented – when you listen to his stuff, it is easy to tell he spent time creating his art.  Three months later, Bebe Cool had eclipsed many people who had beat him at the awards. He had the airplay and media presence and countless interviews. On his 2004 album, Maisha, he managed to produce hits such as Gaetano, Sikiriza, Sambagala, to East African songs such as Bad Boys, and Dadanjo alongside Nameless and K-Rupt.

Bebe’s music back then 

But all that was a culmination of a ridiculous act on October 4. Ten years later, in 2014, Bebe Cool was at it once again, this time, without stepping on anyone’s table, that time, he was releasing exceptional music, the single, Love You Everyday, the first single off his Go Mama album. On May 29, 2015, Bebe Cool would host a listening party for Go Mama, declaring that he was about to change the trajectory of his music.  

With two plush videos by foreign directors, Bebe Cool pushed the album, getting both Ugandans and the world talking, Go Mama was a blueprint of what an intentional artist should sound like. Last year, Bebe Cool started the journey to unveil Break the Chains, his latest album in a disruptive manner. A press conference where he only said what brought him and walked away. A new dawn was here. The album, which in the wee hours of Friday morning dropped on streaming platforms started with a listening party. On May 29, 2025, Bebe Cool declared that he wanted his music to move beyond the Ugandan borders. Break the Chains is a blueprint of what an intentional artist should sound like. 

Categories of audiences 

With a new album, Break the Chains, a bigger wallet and resolve, Bebe Cool is attempting the journey he started and abandoned. Break the Chains, comes at a time when the industry has more than three sections of audiences---the ghetto who have given us a raspy unpolished sound from artistes such as Alien Skin and his ilk.  They are online soldiers who thrive on both TikTok and YouTube. 

The second one is the traditional local fanbase and planned kids who run the streaming numbers. Their edge over any fanbase is that their artists are sellable outside Uganda, they thrive on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube and TikTok, they are a young audience and so are their artists, they don’t do a lot of interviews on local media, but you will see them doing a session with Trace TV, Colors, Boomplay or Glitch in Kenya and Nigeria.

Collaborations

From artists such as Lucien, Mauimoon, Kohen Jaycee, to Elijah kitaka and Joshua Baraka, these artists have moved the needle on streaming platforms showing Ugandans that there is more to music than performing all the time. This Bebe Cool album is trying to tap into this audience and artists. With collaborations with Yemi Alade on African Love and Joshua Baraka on Cheque, Bebe Cool is setting his position in African music, he sings with the princess of Afrobeats whose impact on the genre has global appeal. 

While in Joshua Baraka, he has a new voice of the genre, one whose music can camouflage to fit different forward music sounds, from bending his Delilah to a UK drill to turning his newest, Wrong Places into a British electronic dance song, he brings this energy to Bebe Cool’s album.

Quenching his music thirst 

Break the Chain’s scope is overwhelming as its 16 titles, it is an exciting album of a Bebe Cool whose hunger has been reignited, he wants more and seeks it.  He taps into many sounds but still manages to capture the aesthetics Ugandans loved about him and for Africans, with a song like Home, he almost gets to remind them that he’s not new to the arena, but he gave you Love You Everyday, years ago. However, when Go Mama landed, Uganda was gearing up for the 2016 elections, which Bebe Cool and the music industry found themselves thrown into. 

 Ten years later, Bebe Cool has dropped an ambitious Break the Chains, in 2026, there is an election and today more than before, Bebe Cool and the music industry are closely knitted to politics. Will Bebe Cool and Break the Chains learn from Bebe Cool and the Go Mama scenarios? That’s one question only Bebe Cool can answer; an outcome only Bebe Cool can control.

Bebe Cool hungers for more 

Break the Chains is an exciting album by an artist whose hunger has been reignited. He wants more and seeks it. He taps into many sounds but still manages to capture the aesthetics Ugandans loved about him and for Africans.