Chameleon’s Beyi Kale was a premature birth
He has never lost steam and he possesses the magic to keep crowds moving. His songs have played on almost all radio stations in East Africa.
By Sebidde Kiryowa and Denis Jjuuko
He has never lost steam and he possesses the magic to keep crowds moving. His songs have played on almost all radio stations in East Africa.
There have been reports, albeit unfounded and exaggerated, that Tanzanians think he is Tanzanian while the Kenyans think the same of him. This is attributed to his enormous success across the board with top selling hits such as Njo Karibu, Mama Mia and now Dorotia among others.
The artiste of whom we speak is non other than Jose Chameleon.
Once again radio stations across the land are blaring a new, yet very familiar Chameleon beat. The brand new song (it’s barely a month since it got into circulation) is called Beyi Kali. Written and produced by Jose Chameleon himself, the song was recorded at the artiste’s very own Leon Island Studio in Najjanakumbi. Like many of his previous songs, the track is sung in Swahili to give it a broader East African appeal.
Beyi Kali, which means ‘high price’ in Swahili, is a song about a materialistic girl who distresses her lover because of her expensive preferences. With it’s comic undertones, the song is a satirical take on today’s young lovers.
With its increasing popularity, all should be well with the scrawny singer. He should be laughing all the way to the bank but he is not. Apparently, according to singer, the song should not even be playing on radio as yet. Chameleon claims there has been some foul play and he does not even know how Beyi Kali got to radio DJs.
“The people that are responsible for cutting our CDs (read DJ Rota of Rainbow Sounds) are really giving us a raw deal. They sometimes distribute our music to club DJs from where it finds its way to radio. This they do before we clinch distribution deals and sell off our copyrights. Distributors are not willing to pay for albums that have already leaked out. We fetch much less prices for our work. They are messing with our livelihood. Music is our bread earner,†Chameleon complains.
Beyi Kali was supposed to be a promotional single for his newly completed album, which was due for Easter season. “That song was not supposed to have been released until Easter. It was supposed to be a promotional single for my upcoming album. All the songs are ready and set.
I’m almost done with the studio work but it was not supposed to be released just yet. That means that I have to change my whole marketing strategy. If I want to fetch a reasonable price for my album, I have to find another equally interesting song to front,†he says.
But Chameleon is not the only artiste affected. Ragga Dee also raised a similar complaint about his yet-to-be-released album Nuggu, when the lead single was pirated. Earlier reports mentioned a feud between the DJs and the singers.
The former claimed that the two artistes had confronted them and stopped them from playing their music in clubs without prior permission from them (artistes). The DJs, through their newly formed association threatened to scrap the popular artistes’ songs off their computers and boycott them for good.
But Ragga Dee claims the DJs misunderstood them: “I think that this whole thing has been blown out of proportion. We never confronted anybody. All we said was that DJs should not play our CDs before we sell our distribution rights. If something has already been let out and it is playing everywhere, it makes no business sense for anyone to buy and distribute it. An album that would fetch you sh15m will fetch less than sh10m after it’s pirated. I never released Nuggu to anyone.
“However, after the Reunion 2003 show at Nile Gardens, that song somehow got into the hands of pirates and ended up in the clubs before the time it was scheduled to be released,†Dee says.
Efforts to contact DJ Rota by press time were fruitless but Chagga, Chameleon’s backup singer says the two are trying to patch up their differences.
Ragga Dee also said he had expressed his viewpoint on the issue but was more unyielding on the issue: “I told them what I thought in a polite way. If they want to boycott my music, there’s nothing I can do.â€
He has never lost steam and he possesses the magic to keep crowds moving. His songs have played on almost all radio stations in East Africa.
There have been reports, albeit unfounded and exaggerated, that Tanzanians think he is Tanzanian while the Kenyans think the same of him. This is attributed to his enormous success across the board with top selling hits such as Njo Karibu, Mama Mia and now Dorotia among others.
The artiste of whom we speak is non other than Jose Chameleon.
Once again radio stations across the land are blaring a new, yet very familiar Chameleon beat. The brand new song (it’s barely a month since it got into circulation) is called Beyi Kali. Written and produced by Jose Chameleon himself, the song was recorded at the artiste’s very own Leon Island Studio in Najjanakumbi. Like many of his previous songs, the track is sung in Swahili to give it a broader East African appeal.
Beyi Kali, which means ‘high price’ in Swahili, is a song about a materialistic girl who distresses her lover because of her expensive preferences. With it’s comic undertones, the song is a satirical take on today’s young lovers.
With its increasing popularity, all should be well with the scrawny singer. He should be laughing all the way to the bank but he is not. Apparently, according to singer, the song should not even be playing on radio as yet. Chameleon claims there has been some foul play and he does not even know how Beyi Kali got to radio DJs.
“The people that are responsible for cutting our CDs (read DJ Rota of Rainbow Sounds) are really giving us a raw deal. They sometimes distribute our music to club DJs from where it finds its way to radio. This they do before we clinch distribution deals and sell off our copyrights. Distributors are not willing to pay for albums that have already leaked out. We fetch much less prices for our work. They are messing with our livelihood. Music is our bread earner,†Chameleon complains.
Beyi Kali was supposed to be a promotional single for his newly completed album, which was due for Easter season. “That song was not supposed to have been released until Easter. It was supposed to be a promotional single for my upcoming album. All the songs are ready and set.
I’m almost done with the studio work but it was not supposed to be released just yet. That means that I have to change my whole marketing strategy. If I want to fetch a reasonable price for my album, I have to find another equally interesting song to front,†he says.
But Chameleon is not the only artiste affected. Ragga Dee also raised a similar complaint about his yet-to-be-released album Nuggu, when the lead single was pirated. Earlier reports mentioned a feud between the DJs and the singers.
The former claimed that the two artistes had confronted them and stopped them from playing their music in clubs without prior permission from them (artistes). The DJs, through their newly formed association threatened to scrap the popular artistes’ songs off their computers and boycott them for good.
But Ragga Dee claims the DJs misunderstood them: “I think that this whole thing has been blown out of proportion. We never confronted anybody. All we said was that DJs should not play our CDs before we sell our distribution rights. If something has already been let out and it is playing everywhere, it makes no business sense for anyone to buy and distribute it. An album that would fetch you sh15m will fetch less than sh10m after it’s pirated. I never released Nuggu to anyone.
“However, after the Reunion 2003 show at Nile Gardens, that song somehow got into the hands of pirates and ended up in the clubs before the time it was scheduled to be released,†Dee says.
Efforts to contact DJ Rota by press time were fruitless but Chagga, Chameleon’s backup singer says the two are trying to patch up their differences.
Ragga Dee also said he had expressed his viewpoint on the issue but was more unyielding on the issue: “I told them what I thought in a polite way. If they want to boycott my music, there’s nothing I can do.â€