Edgar R. Batte
31 August 2007
column
Bebe Cool considers 2007 as one of his most successful years. He has done a number of collaborations, as well as earning four Channel O Music Video Award nodes under the East African Bashment Crew for their song Kube.
Tonight, the self-proclaimed king of the music jungle launches his Bafudde album and one of the major highlights will be the performance by Trinidad and Tobago singer, Marlon Asher aka Ganja Planter.
There was a fracas when Marlon Asher turned up for Henry Tigan's concert at Sabrina's Pub last weekend, putting the performance of Marlon Asher at Bebe Cool's launch in jeopardy, but that has been resolved and Bebe Cool will show up with the Ganja Planter tonight. The event will been managed by Silk Events and sponsored by Bell Lager and Celtel Uganda.
The Bafudde star will be launching the album in what he prefers to call the train weekend, over three days. Tonight he will perform in a VIP concert where revellers will part with Shs20,000.
There will be a premium section where the entrance fee will be Shs50,000 and this will entitle those who part with the money to free dinner and drinks throughout the night.
Tomorrow, he heads to Jinja where he will perform at a street jam on Spire Road for Shs5,000. The musical voyage will then be crowned with a beach-musical affair at Imperial Resort Beach in Entebbe where fans will part with Shs10,000.
It is expected to be an East African event featuring Kenya's Necessary Noize who also form two thirds of the East African Bashment Crew where Bebe Cool is the other third, Parma and Karma from Nairobi plus Tanzania's A.Y and Dudu Baya and a host of Ugandan musicians. At the wheels of steel will be Nairobi's Deejay Pinye.
Meanwhile, Bebe Cool has revealed that he will be using the chance to do collaborations with Marlon Asher. He has already been in Icon Studio with Dudu Baya with whom he has recorded two singles Jumba and Nipe Mapendo.
He says that he is eyeing an international breakthrough and a collabo with Marlon Asher would put him on the right track.
Some of the songs that have kept Bebe Cool on top of his game this year include Ekitibwa Ky'omukyala in which he dispenses marriage counsel. In Kiba Kibi, he is featured by Sweet Kid, while he sings about his prison experiences in Prison For No Reason and Mu Komera. Kamungolo, a duet with Nandujja is a fusion of traditional Ugandan drums with reggae. His latest is Fire Burn Dem, done with Dizzy Nutts.
These among others done with his East African Bashment Crew like Combination and Kube have convinced the Gagamel Entertainment Crew President that he is this year's best artiste. "Of course I am the best. No artiste has done anything better than me. I am flying high, not only musically but even in the pocket," he says.
About Marlon Asher
To the average Ugandan, he is the 'Ganja Planter' following the popularity of his no-holds-barred song. In the song, Marlon Asher sings about the aggravation the marijuana farmer endures whenever law enforcers burn his field.
In an exclusive interview with the Trinidad and Tobago Express - a Caribbean daily, he answered his critics by explaining what the song meant to him.
"I was never a farmer, but I have friends who are and seeing what they have to go through when police burn their fields inspired me to create the song. People must understand that planters have mouths to feed and this is how they earn a living to do so. Putting aside the fact that herb is life and everything else about that, when you think about the work and money a man puts into his field and then see it being burnt, it's not easy."
He goes on to say that authorities should provide an alternative crop if they have a problem with the ganja. "The farmers would be willing to adapt to something else once it brought in an income that made sense. It's all about supporting their families. Any man who can feed his family is a comfortable man," Asher said.
As a child, Marlon Asher always loved reggae music and cites Bob Marley, Dennis Brown and Barrington Levy as his mentors. He was a member of the Mount Ararat Spiritual Baptist Church Choir and later converted to Rastafarianism.
Asher was once a joiner and a mason but left the trade due to allergies. His left index finger was lost in a sawing accident.
The artiste has toured together with stars such as Beenie Man, Sizzla, Maxi Priest and Boyz II Men. He has toured Boston, Virginia, Miami, Baltimore and Toronto, and later plans to tour Germany and the United Kingdom.
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