Kampala’s Past Stars Vanish From The Music Scene

Oct 03, 2002

You hear them today and enjoy their music to extent that you even name your adored kid after them, but before you know it, they have disappeared, never to be heard about again.

By Harry Sagara
You hear them today and enjoy their music to extent that you even name your adored kid after them, but before you know it, they have disappeared, never to be heard about again. We are talking of people in show-business. You painfully witness your favourite star slowly but surely fading away into the annals of oblivion.
You see a recent picture of them and you go like “Oh yes, I remember that guy who did this or that…” Locally, we have quite a handful of those ‘has beens.’ Does anyone remember the all-girl duo of Prim and Propa? Whatever happened to them?
Prim & Propa were revolutionaries of female rap in the Uganda. They did something bordering on what Salt & Pepa (by the way, where are they?) offered us. The duo was Brenda Z'obbo and Lilliane Butele, who were aching with a pubescent drive, fresh from Namasagali College. They were picked up by the hottest Producer then, Peter Sematimba, and the outcome was a chart-busting Why You Wanna Cheat On Me single. Well, as we were still shaking our heads and trying to cram that rap that goes like “The dungeon does it again, this time with the ladies…” we realised that we were actually singing alone: Prim & Propa had disappeared. They had gone with the wind! Today, Brenda Z'obbo works as a presenter at Radio One while Lillianne Butele is pursuing greener pastures in the United States.
You definitely witnessed Perfect Generation do their thing on the entertainment scene. That group consisted of Hassan Kimbugwe, Alex Odida, Simon Base Kalema. Wherever these guys are today, we have no idea, but we shall never forget their kakokolo hit.
Then came the flashy Peter Ssematimba with his over-hyped single, Baby Kyana. Those of us who heard the song knew that it would have no follower, and true to our word there was none.
The next thing we heard was Ssematimba was a businessman. Today he is holed up at his Super FM radio station.
Then there was Jimmy Bageire (MC Afrik) with his Watoto Wa Afrika gig. Bageire later went for a course in India. Today, he earns a salary as an employee of MCL Mcaan.
Internationally speaking, 1990 brought in the tall and lanky Vanilla Ice, who rummaged through a collection of pacy words that comprised the chart-buster Ice, Ice Baby.
Whoever did not know that rap was considered persona non grata in the teenage societies then. You remember something that went like “Alright stop. Collaborate and Listen, Ice is back with a brand new edition…something….” Well, the song became the order of the day in almost every nightclub and today, when it plays on radio, it brings back fond memories. Wherever Vanilla Ice is today, only God knows.
Then we had MC Hammer who cultivated a fortune in showbiz but threw everything to the wind. You remember the multi-platinum gig, You Can't Touch This. Well, no one touched his wealth, which included a huge mountaintop basilica, hundreds of limousines, a fleet of planes, gold-plaited toilet seats... name it. He had it.
Hammer fever caught up with us and we started donning those hammer pants with bases at the knee-line. Well, Hammer got himself into woes with the auctioneer’s hammer and today he is back to square one. We hear that he is holed up in church preaching the word of God.Ends

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