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Bobi Wine and music industry: Who misses the other?
Revellers cheer up Bobi Wine as he performs during the Enkuuka show to usher the New Year at Lubiri in Mengo, Kampala City, on December 30, 2018. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- When the Kyadondo East seat fell vacant in 2017, Bobi Wine – also known as Robert Kyagulanyi - answered the call, storming to Parliament in ‘’bad man style’’. Wine, who had been drunk with music all his life, now found a new addiction – politics – and even gave the presidency a stab in the 2021 General Election, coming second after President Museveni. Today, in the second part of this series, we look at if he misses the music industry or the industry misses him.
Bobi Wine was not supposed to perform at the 2018 edition of Enkuuka. However, after tension, announcements, counter announcements, and possible calls from Mengo to State House, Omubanda wa Kabaka (Kabaka’s Bad Boy) hit the stage, driving the expectant crowds crazy. But did he know that would be his last stage performance in Uganda?
Maybe, because in just 30 minutes, he had torn the rule book and thrown the shreds into the adoring mammoth crowd. Mr Abbey Musinguzi, aka Abtex, of Abtex Productions, had been given conditions: “He wasn’t supposed to sing or comment about politics,” Mr Musinguzi told us.
“But I couldn’t tell that to Bobi. He was also not supposed to wear red.” But Mr Musinguzi countered his co-promoter’s announcement that even the revellers weren’t supposed to wear red. In his view, it would kill the vibe. “And really, how do you tell your client how they should be dressed?” he said.
Enkuuka, Buganda’s biggest festival, attracts between 45,000 and 60,000 people to the Kabaka’s Lubiri grounds every New Year’s Eve. That afternoon, Bobi Wine, real name Robert Kyagulanyi, who was then the Kyadondo East legislator, wore a red overall and red beret, typical People Power attire. And black security-grade boots. He also sang exactly what he wasn’t supposed to sing. Politics. Or what he calls revolutionary music.
“Bw’ozaalibwa mu ghetto n’okulira mu ghetto, n’osomera mu ghetto, n’ osigala mu ghetto, n’ olobera mu ghetto eyo eba compliance,” meaning “if you’re born and bred in the ghetto, and stick in the ghetto, that’s compliance,” he sang in Bikwase Kyagulanyi.
“Naye Bw’ozaalibwa mu ghetto. n’okulira mu ghetto…osobola okuyimuka n’okiikira ghetto…eyo eba defiance,” meaning “if you’re born and bred in the ghetto, you can rise and represent the ghetto, and that’s defiance.”
In Freedom, he sang: “Bw’otunuulira ekikyamu n’osirikira eyo ob’oliddemu ensi yo olukwe; (If you see wrong and just ignore that’s treason). Naffe abakulwanirako n’osirikira gy’oli obeera otusaddaase (and you would have sacrificed us who fight for you).
Hadn’t he made his point? Not yet. He went freestyle and radical: “Ono omusajja tumutya buti naye nga twakungaanye walai tumutwala talinnya…” meaning “We just fear this man, but I swear if we unite, we can easily defeat him.”
Then as he and Nubian Li wound up Uganda Zuukuka — their 2015 classic—they sang: “We are the leaders of the future, and the future is today.” Bobi Wine took turns pointing at the crowd, singing: “Gwe, you are the mayor of the future, and the future is today. “Gwe, you are the MP of the future, and the future is today.”
Bridge burnt
The rowdy crowds, swinging red flags, were loving every moment. The Kabaka and the Nnaabageraka were smiling. Bobi Wine had had a blast. But he had burnt the bridge.
Just weeks before the end-of-year Enkuuka festival of 2018, Bobi Wine claimed that police had halted about 125 of his concerts, including his Kyarenga concert that was tossed from one venue to another before it finally happened on November 10, 2018, at his One Love Beach in Busaabala, Kampala City.
Yet there’s no legal ground that stops Bobi Wine from performing. Exactly five years ago, the High Court ruled that the police’s decision to indefinitely halt Bobi Wine’s Kyarenga Extra concerts, which had been scheduled for the 2019 Easter holidays in Gulu, Lira, Arua and Kampala, was “illegal, irrational, unreasonable and an abuse of power”.
Justice Esther Nambayo said the promoters had complied with all the police requirements to stage the concerts. “In my view, this was in bad faith, it was absurd and it would appear that the decision-maker had taken leave of his senses.”
The judge stopped the police from preventing musical shows and celebrations of a social nature organised by the applicants— Abbey Musinguzi, aka Abtex, of Abtex Promotions and Andrew Mukasa, aka Bajjo of Bajjo Events. But who determines whether a concert is of “a social nature” when Bobi Wine is seen more as a politician than a musician?
Moreover, an opposition politician who uses music to “awaken” the public to demand change? To the state, “awakening” may be “provocative, toxic and inciting violence.”
Last year, Bobi Wine had a bitter exchange with Ms Mariam Wangadya, the Uganda Human Rights Commission chairperson, before withdrawing his petition challenging the police for blocking his musical concerts. It was a protest move. It’s six years since Bobi was banned from the stage and his defiant music was denied airplay. Does the music industry miss him, or is it the other way around? Opinions are varied.
He misses the life
If you still doubt whether Bobi misses the stage, you need to dial back to his conduct at Fik Fameica’s concert at Hotel Africa in August 2022.
He was the guest of honour, and for the two hours he spent there, the audience was singing his name; creating an irresistible aura. Since 2018, Bobi has rarely attended concerts. But the scenes at this concert turned him on.
Bobi , though he has performed in Zimbabwe, the UK, Denmark, USA, clearly still misses the home crowd. Whenever the deejay sampled one of his songs, he couldn’t stop smiling. When the spin master played Bad Man From Kamwokya, Bobi’s collabo with Navio, the Opposition leader almost abandoned his VIP seat. He stood up, danced a bit, smiled and waved to the crowd.
He was on the cusp. But he knew the armed men around couldn’t let him touch the mic. He had rallied his fans to support a brother’s hustle. He couldn’t ruin it.
Tshaka Mayanja, a musician and promoter, understands that feeling. “If Bobi is indeed a musician, he must be having sleepless nights over not being able to freely record and perform his music. That can eventually drive a musician insane, literally,” he said.
Mr James Kaliisa, aka James Propa, an entertainment analyst, concurs. “Artists never outgrow the love for the stage, and Bobi is no exception. The state machinery forced him off the stage when the audience’s response was at its peak.
So, he definitely misses the audience just like it misses him.” Producer Paddyman, whose real name is Paddy Kayiwa Mukasa, started working with Bobi in 2007. He said music is what Bobi is.
“He’s been a musician most of his life. Yes, he might have played leadership roles, but music is what he is.” Speaking on Capital FM’s Desert Island Discs last year, Bobi agreed: “Music was the only thing I could do to stand out.”
At Kitante High School, he was neither the best academically, nor a good debater, nor even a sportsman, though much later he went into boxing.
“So, every Friday during entertainment, [at school] I saw guys rapping and I felt ‘bano mbasobola’ (I can be better than them),” he recalled on the Capital FM show.
“So he must be missing the [local] stage a lot,” Paddyman said. Mr Sulaiman Buyondo, an events manager and presenter on Dembe FM, thinks politics has given Bobi more than what he would have missed in the music industry.
“He doesn’t even miss those supremacy battles he had with Bebe and Chameleone because they still drag him into those battles, even though it’s clear he’s far bigger than them. “Remember when Bobi commented on the copyright law, the people in the music industry made noise over it. But that’s what they wanted,” he said.
End of Big Three?
So, how much does the music industry miss the Ghetto Gladiator?
“That’s like asking ‘how much the sun misses humanity.’ Music is much bigger than any of us individuals. Music alone shall live,” Tshaka Mayanja concludes. But he acknowledged Bobi’s unique impact as a continuation of Shanks Vivie D, Ragga Dee, Menton Summer, Miles Coco Banton, Mega Dee & Krono.
“Guys who did Jamaican ragga music with Luganda lyrics.” “And his presence created a kind of competition between Bebe and Chameleone, which brought out the best of the Big Three, which was healthy for the industry.”
Tshaka also credited Bobi’s Firebase Crew, Bebe’s Gagamel and Jose Chameleone’s Leone Island for mimicking those crews in Jamaica and in the USA, adding the showbiz element to music. “Actually, without the Bobi pressure, Chameleone and Bebe are less creative, less productive,” said Mr Simon Peter Ndawula, aka Omulangira Ndausi, a radio presenter with more than 20 years of experience.
He also strongly dismisses Abtex’s claim that Bobi, like his Big Two rivals, is a spent force. “It’s wrong. Legends don’t fade. Look, why are we going back to their music? Why don’t we move with the new ones?” he said.
He added: “The industry has failed to find an artist with the calibre and permanence of any of those three guys. Many hit and go, hit and run. But those guys, almost every song of theirs was a hit, and they did it for years.”
Ndausi, renowned for voicing event commercials, added that the trio had mastered the game of rivalry, which sometimes turned bloody. Besides adopting additional tags like Big Size, Ghetto President, Ghetto Gladiator, Omubanda wa Kabaka, they coined derogatory nicknames for rivals: Bobi named Bebe Kataala, and Bebe named Bobi Kadingo. They also had tricks. Abtex remembers those days when CBS’s Ekitoobero and Radio Simba’s Ekiggunda at Nakivubo were the biggest shows in town.
There were many attractions. Some revellers came to see their favourite radio presenters, theatre stars such as Abbey Mukiibi, Mulindwa Muwonge, Benon Kibuuka, Charles Ssenkubuge Siasa, Leila Kalanzi, etc. or Ofwono, the tallest man in Uganda, among others. “But Bobi’s stage entries were so fantastic you could think he was the star attraction,” Abtex said.
If Chameleone came in a chopper, Bobi came in a bus while blowing fire from his mouth, like an expert acrobat. Once, Bebe Cool opened his concert with three Bobi songs. And these weren’t one-offs, Ndausi said. Creativity became their habit. Even if Bobi’s song wasn’t that good, Abtex said, he would hype it until you liked it.
“Like someone destined for greatness”. Basically, he faked it till he made it. Bobi assumed the title of His Excellency when he was the Ghetto President. Now, doesn’t it fit like skin? “The music industry misses his Afrobeat style. Most guys in that style are lacking,” observes Mr Eddie Ssendi, a music critic. James Propa also feels that no artist matches Bobi’s unique stage performance.
Where’s the edutainment?
Besides beef, love and braggadocio, Bobi’s music was renowned for edutainment—fusing education and entertainment. Mwekuume, his collabo with Wethaman, was sensitising the youth about HIV/Aids, Tube Bayonjo, was advocating hygiene in the ghetto, Carolina, was advising schoolgirls to beware of hyenas(predators), Coronavirus needs no introduction.
Wesotinge was his advice to Bebe when his love Zuena, had left. Specioza was Bobi’s dedication to his ex-lover. Had she not dumped him, he wouldn’t have met the amazing Barbie Itungo. “The public must be missing his edutainment,” producer Paddyman claimed. Many other songs urge the ghetto youth to work harder, aim higher and break barriers.
In other songs, Bobi had educated the youths about their political rights. But since he started walking his political lyrics in 2017, his message spread like a wildfire. Many youths embraced the 2021 elections, as voters and contestants at all levels, in the spirit of ‘you’ve failed, now it’s our turn.’
Remember Katumba Oyee? But while Bobi dreamt that he would continue his “awakening” gospel, the state shouted, “STOP!” “The audiences miss his messages against inequality and injustices, a road few artists are willing to take.”
Content creators
Mr Dius Walugembe, has covered entertainment news for about 10 years, but when the vibe in the music industry declined, he changed with the times.
“We changed the focus because the music is no longer a fertile ground for most content creators,” says Mr Walugembe, whose YouTube channel totals more than 3.5 million views and nearly 30,000 subscribers.
“With the current technology, just the talk and then the songs that would have come out of the debate would have been massive. But since Bobi switched to politics, Bebe and Chameleone are no longer creative,” Mr Walugembe added.
Mr Isaac Katende, whose Kasuku Live channel boasts more than 56 million views and close to 180,000 subscribers, said it point-blank: “The Big Three is no more; maybe in theory. Because even if Bobi wants to comment about a topic in the industry, he feels he’s now above that level.”
Like many, Mr Walugembe misses the Big Three’s creativity. “They had taken the competition to another level.
I remember covering Solomon Kampala [Bobi’s eldest son] performing at the Go Green concert on Father’s Day. Even Abba [Chameleone’s son] tried music.”
Walugembe and Katende, alias Kasuku, agree that, just like in music, Bobi is a trendsetter even in politics, despite his inexperience. Before becoming the Youth and Children Affairs minister, Mr Balaam Barugahara, organised more than 20 Bobi concerts, including Bada, his first show, at Hotel Equatorial.
“We filled the venue until the venue manager told us to stop collecting money,” Mr Barugahara told us. The duo also did more than 100 events for the MTN Kabiriti campaign across Uganda. “We made money with Bobi,” said the promoter, adding that it was out of that money that Bobi bought land for his palatial home in Magere on Gayaza Road, and his beach in Busaabala.
But Kasuku, Abtex, Ndausi and most people we talked to think Bobi doesn’t miss music for the money. “He’s now rich. Unless he’s singing for political gain.”
