On that sunny afternoon of May 25, 2015 at Lake View Hotel in Mbarara as he responded to a TV interview, the 23-year-old Reagan Muhairwe (Ray G) must have known, like he does to this date, that the weight his vision carried was arduous. But not insurmountable.
The S6 dropout had set eyes on something whose success depended on years and years of gradual shift in mindset.
A decade later, today, he still carries the weight of it.
Very few Ugandan artistes have filled up the Cricket Oval in Lugogo. The vast cricket stadium where in 2008 the English reggae and pop band, UB40, played before a staggering crowd of 35,000 people, has become the ultimate yardstick of measuring the weight of Ugandan musicians. Why? Because in a country where copyright laws are dysfunctional, performing artistes still rely entirely on stage performances for a livelihood. And the cricket stadium happens to be among the biggest venues for outdoor events.
In that peculiar context, it leaves concert ticket sales as the only yardstick to measure who is more popular. Few Ugandan singers have lived up to the bill. Jose Chameleone, Gravity Omutujju, Winnie Nwagi making the short list.
When Ray G pulled 30,000 people to the same stadium on May 10, nothing could make what he has been up against throughout his career clearer. That he will always be judged by a different yardstick. He is not a Mayanja (Chameleone), neither is he a Nakanwagi (Nwagi). And that’s because none of the mentioned artistes has built a career from the ground up based entirely away from Kampala which is ground zero of Uganda’s music business.
Everyone that has ever defied whatever is deemed normal has had a cross to carry. And the Mureebe singer disclosed as much in that May 2015 interview with TV West.
“If we all (people from Western Uganda) adopt the spirit of loving our (Western) music, we will take it to the next level. If every media, the DJs and other stakeholders put in the effort, Runyankole music can go places. Many people downplay the potential of singing in our language but I don’t,” a little-known Ray G told TV West then.
To hammer the point home, he borrowed a Runyankore proverb that goes… ‘Mukama w’amara afa akweiseho’ which implies that if you got stabbed in the stomach, subconsciously, you must hold your intestines because only you can safeguard your intestines.
“Yes, maybe we the singers haven’t done Runyankore justice when it comes to singing, but give us a push. We will get to where you (audience) want us to be. Because even those (artistes) that we relish in today, started like us,” he added.
One cannot measure the success of the May 10 concert in the Cricket Oval unless they understand the significance of that night in the context of the singer’s quest that goes thirteen years back.
There were many little yet profound moments that an ordinary person missed out easily during the concert. Moments that were bigger than Ray G himself. The closing act of the concert, a duet between Ray G and Megatone, for example. To Megatone, the Mbarara-based singer who has been singing for over a decade, this was no ordinary performance.
Until that night, he never came remotely to knowing the feeling of performing before a crowd that he couldn’t stretch his eyes beyond, on a ground that has initiated singers in the league of the Greats. Only international acts or local artistes with a long catalog of hits enjoy the privilege of performing in the Cricket Oval beyond midnight. But thanks to a collaboration (Forever) that Ray G promised him during his poorly attended shows in a little-known pub in Mbarara in 2022, Megatone got to enjoy the thrill that comes with closing a big league concert.
When Truth 256, arguably the most acclaimed rapper to come from the Western region, joined Ray G on stage to perform Weena, no moment was more symbolic of the possibilities that a new generation of talent now sees in embracing their indigenous language. If you ask many of this talent – from TPaul to Omega 256, to Ambroy – chances are, they will tell you one person emboldened them to dream. That person is Ray G.
As the two (Ray G and Truth 256) shared a hug, it almost looked like a convergence between tradition and the future. A symbol of where the Western sound has come from and where it is going. Truth’s execution on Hard Guy or Nooha is something that was unthinkable 20 years ago.
In the 2015 interview, Ray G added; “I might not be the one that delivers us to that desired stage where Runyankore music is prestigious, but I will play my part. I will put a foundation stone for those that will come after me to climb. The task at hand can’t be accomplished by a single person.”
He warned, if the statusquo was maintained, the region risked suffering cultural erosion. That a time would come where the young folks didn’t know Runyakore.
Ray G was not reinventing the wheel. Like many of his millennial peers, he had grown up to names like Sister Charity, Rasta Chaz, Princess Zahara, Lady Mariam and later Doris Mutahunga, Queen Marion and Ogaba Okufu who sang in the local language albeit with a sound that gravitated towards what was popular in Kampala at the time.
This was the time the long spell of Soukus, Ragga and American RnB was folding and the country was warming up to a new Afropop sound, one that had a lot of influence from Kenya. In the West, though there were artistes that sang in the local language, the sound was more of what’s usually referred to as ‘band music’.
They had been hesitant to evolve with the new trends. Only Allan Toniks was early to the party. When he did Itaano in 2010, it was a big departure from what industry had defined as a Runyankore song.
“I heard one song – Amarari – that had been released a few weeks. The tone of Ray G’s vocals was something we had never heard before in the region. At the time, we were looking for a fresh Runyankore urban artiste to grow with the young generation. Because the thirst was among the young generation,” says Wavah Jay who was Ray G’s manager for seven years until 2020.
With Enshazi, a song that tackled social issues, the singer managed to demonstrate his musical range by appealing to different demographics – young and old. The song which was a rallying call for unity, love, peace and responsible parenting quickly became an anthem on radio and all public spaces.
“Our biggest struggle at the start was to make sure we don’t lose the older audience, which was a bit commercial but also more importantly, the young generation that we knew we would grow with,” Wavah told PLUGGED.
One of the things that quickly set Ray G’s identity apart was his lyrics that were a stark departure from what was the standard. It’s this attribute that those who are quick to dismiss him often ignore. But to appreciate the lyricist he is, one must know the language he writes in. Which is why he might never prove himself enough.
“Ray G is one of the best songwriters Uganda has ever had. He’s among the top three. I have a production background, and I pay so much attention to detail in songwriting. Some songs he has written in under 10 minutes.”
Wavah says that molding the brand Ray G involved coming to terms with the fact that “if we wanted to reach the stars, we needed to shoot for way beyond the stars”.
“We wanted the music to be listened to at least on a national level, but we knew that to achieve that, we had to set our minds beyond the national level. So that in the event that we wouldn’t achieve that, we would still get a national appeal.”
To do this, the team began to benchmark on the Nigerian sound which was quickly gaining fame. When you listen to Mureebe, you will notice the track borrows its arrangement from a sound that endeared Ugandans to singers like Tekno and Kizz Daniel back then.
Wavah who currently manages Swangz Avenue singer, Elijah Kitaka, says; “That approach was strategic. We sat down and assessed the pros and cons of both scenarios. His breakthrough song, Amarari, had demonstrated there was sheer demand for a fresh young singer with a fresh urban sound. The research and analysis by the team had also showed that it would be easier to market a Western-based artiste to the Western audience compared to marketing them to an already saturated market (Central region).”
They applied science too. Crunching the numbers to establish how big was the audience they intended to reach and what target (figure) if achieved in terms of visibility would make business sense.
“Statistics showed we had 4 million Banyankore in Uganda. For an artiste to be established and have their career running, you need at least 1 million people to know your name and what you do. That’s not a small number. It required work, but we were sure if we did the right thing, we would succeed,” he adds.
But not many believed in this strategy. Many felt the team was misleading the artiste by choosing the longer route yet he could just sing Luganda and get his foot into the mass market.
Among the reasons for which Wavah and his team had cold feet towards going down this path were the lessons that history had presented. There had been a pattern where artistes started out writing in their language only to later relocate to the capital and eventually trade their language for Luganda. This cycle had often left the audience in the West feeling deserted by their own. Like their identity was inferior.
“Even when Ray G popped up, it took time for them to fully embrace him. We had to do many things deliberately to make sure the masses had assurance that this brand (Ray G) fully belonged to the West. We knew that if they were convinced he was theirs, they had the power to get us to the bigger stages we wanted.”
With the quick success that Mureebe attained, and the increasing influence of the Nigerian-led Afrobeat sound in the Ugandan market, the need to expose the artiste to this trending sound had become apparent. Otherwise, the mistakes of the prior crop of Western artistes, especially the failure to evolve, would catch up with Ray G.
So, he began to spend sometimes weeks in Kampala recording music with some of the best producers the industry had. Even then, these trips were not publicized, as it risked fueling misconceptions within the masses. Which updates were made public and which ones were not was all carefully assessed.
The team was wary of the back and forth movements of music industry influencers – singers, emcees, deejays, promoters – between the West and Kampala. So they figured the cost effective approach to amplify the artiste was by making sure each time these influencers were in the West, they were exposed to what Ray G represented and the power he wielded on the home turf.
“Where we had concentration and power, we gave it 100 percent. So that, if a person moves from the region and goes out, they are like an ambassador. We had relationships that we built along the way, including the media and those gave us a big push.”
The singer has collaborated with many singers that use Luganda, among them Grenade, Serena Bata, Ziza Bafana, Geo Steady and Voltage Music among others. One cannot downplay how much these projects have amplified the brand Ray G especially within the Central region and beyond.
But none of these collabs hit the heights of Omusheshe.
Spice Diana was at her peak musically and had a lot of talkability in the media. Omusheshe would be the silver bullet that made Ray G’s maiden concert in Mbarara in 2019 a major success. It turned around Ray G’s commercial fortunes especially in other parts of the country. Spice who already had a national appeal helped introduce him to a section of her fan base that was hitherto unconverted.
The song got good airplay topping the 8to8 Countdown on Capital FM and ranking #8 on NTV Uganda’s Top 100 songs of 2019. It also made the Bebe Cool list of the hit songs of the same year.
Every artiste is as big as the push the mainstream media gives them. Capital FM and its nationwide coverage was the springboard that the regional singer needed to get the impetus to cast him to places he couldn’t ordinarily reach. The two brands formed a symbiotic relationship with Capital rallying behind several of his concerts in Mbarara. Locally, Radio West and TV West had helped cement him as an embodiment of the Ankole pop culture.
“You know Capital went national and on top of that, we are a music station. And we really want to win different regions. What gives us traction and engagement is music because music unites people,” says John Paul Mugwanya, the Promotions Manager at Capital FM.
“Being that Mbarara is one of our stronghold regions, we consider him (Ray G) to be among the talented people that have what it takes to sustain us as a music station but also give us engagement,” he further told PLUGGED.
Mugwanya says the station is cautious about the quality of music it schedules and admits that Ray G’s approach – working with the best producers – has paid off and subsequently made Capital’s relationship with the artiste inevitable.
“You can see that he is not comfortable.”
The entertainment industry and the showbiz that goes with it is such a zerosum game. It will consume you threefold of the fruits any artiste or celebrity reaps from it. The industry’s pressures have had many artistes subdue to compromises they ordinarily wouldn’t have. Be it giving into a toxic relationship with the media that often favors artistes that are scandalous and controversial or even the unwritten rule that one must self-proclaim themselves to fame.
Every headline Ray G has made has been about the music. Not a rumored relationship, not a fight he was involved in or acts of self-aggrandizement. Perhaps the biggest controversy he has been sucked into so far is the incident in Mbarara at the end of last year where he flexed on stage with singer Azawi over who would perform first. One among the many impediments the singer had to surmount in his pursuit to secure Runyankore a place on the national table.
ALSO READ: Ray G mourns death of his child as “darkest of days”
Some of the post-concert criticism dwelt on his performance attributes. His not-so-choreographed stage presence which critics regard as lacking life and thus ranking him low as an entertainer. The fact that he’s an RnB singer aside, a lot of that has to do with Ray G’s meekness. It is an unmissable attribute about his personality.
“Ray G was a very quiet person. Just like he is now,” Jamada Ainemukama recollects of the person the singer was 17 years ago.
The two have been friends since school at Ishaka Adventist College in Bushenyi in 2007. They shared the same class.
Beyond their shared meekness, it was their love for music that drew them together.
Matter of fact, their first encounter was made possible by music. Ainemukama had been strolling through the school compound singing to Lionel Richie’s I Call it Love when he coincidentally came across Ray G singing the same song.
“That’s how we became friends.”
“He was in the school choir but I wasn’t. I used to love music.”
As fate would have it, Ainemukama dropped out of school due to circumstances. He and Muhairwe would reunite during the school holiday since they both stayed in Kizinda in Ishaka.
Ainemukama had recorded his first song and he felt it was time he dragged his buddy, Reagan, to studio too.
“He was very shy and he never wanted to go. I told him ‘You will become Radio (Mowzey) and I’ll become Weasel’. Of course he gave me excuses about being an Adventist, so I played him my song and he picked interest.”
Happy Alex (now a Pastor and Christian music singer) who owned a recording studio recorded their debut song – My Girl. And later, another duet Omunyankore Aboneire.
At the time, Ainemukama worked as a crew member for an events managing firm, helping with erecting tents and the like. He earned about Ush 35,000 after the event. It’s this money together with any savings that Muhairwe made off his upkeep that they paid for studio recording. Recording a song cost around Ush 100,000 but Happy Alex at times took Ush 70,000.
“The goal was of course to become good artistes for the region and raise the flag for the region. I remember back then we had Ogaba Okufu (Enyabumba). He was the one trying to push. We wanted to bring international styles to the region. There was a difference between the Okufus used to do and the music he (Ray G) is doing now. We wanted something urban,” says Ainemukama of what the two amateur singers thought they would become ten years later.
A decade and several sold-out concerts later, he feels nothing except gratitude towards God. While his now celebrity buddy has always urged him to give commercial music another shot, Ainemukama has reservations.
“I’ve always told him (Ray G) that I did my part. I believe that when you meet someone and add a brick to their life, it means that’s how God wanted you to do it.”
Ainemukama never left the events space. Currently, he is a photographer and cofounder of Empaako Festival, a cultural-themed event.
“I appreciate what he (Ray G) has become. Hopefully, it can go beyond just filling the Cricket Oval. Hopefully he can go international”
Many things set Ray G apart. But nothing has made him distinct better than his poetic style of writing. His lyrics carry so much undertones and are very organic. On Enshazi, Nkaronda, All I Can Give, Owangye (Omwigarire), he stretched this bar even farther.
“I believe in being original and real. I grew up with my grandmother who had keen interest in language. She had great respect for culture and she always beat us whenever we spoke in slang. So, that way, I managed to keep up with the typical Runyakore,” Ray G told me in a 2016 interview I did for Chimpreports.
Then signed under ‘De Concept Music’, the singer who at the time had released 2 albums and 6 singles, told me he couldn’t opt to sing in a language he wasn’t fluent in at the expense of Runyankore “a language I even dream in”.
“Better still, I wanted to disprove the common perception that one can’t sing in Runyankore,” he told me eight years ago as we sat at Agip Motel in Mbarara, long before he thought the hotel field would be too small for him to stage a concert. His second concert in 2022 was held at University Inn in Mbarara, the first time any artiste was holding a solo concert at the vast space.
His clarity of vision was unwavering then as it had been a year prior in his TV West interview. Eight years on, with three HiPipo Awards, a Janzi Award and several other accolades under his name, this vision has charted a new path and reassured a growing number of regional-based talent that one can weave a career out of singing in their indigenous language but with an urban and edgy feel to it.
Truth 256 is a rapper that’s based in Mbarara. Initially, he tried to rap in English but the audience wasn’t as receptive to this sound as it was to his latter works he did in Runyankore.
“Ray G came in and gave it an urban touch. The time he came out, Afrobeats was a thing. And consumers of music usually go with what’s hyped as trendy. At a time where DJs had sidelined Runyankore music as being below standard, Ray G’s new sound gave them no excuse to not play it”.
In the process, everyone – mass market, the boda boda rider, corporates and university students – began to warm up to it.
The rapper admits that the generation of artistes that sprung up in the wake of Ray G’s rise found fertile ground for this new sound.
Truth who at one time was signed under the same management as Ray G describes the latter as hardworking, smart, brave and talented.
“Today, many people will say nobody sings Runyankore better than Ray G and they are right. And it’s the same thing that happened at the concert (in Lugogo). Right now, they (Western audience) feel like they own him. They came to support someone who has put their language, culture and heritage on the map,” the Chunda singer intimated to PLUGGED.
Anyone that has given an ear to the 30-year-old’s music which often adopts Eminem-style supersonic rhyme spitting, would easily guess the sound that inspired the rapper’s career.
Like many of his fellow millennials, Truth 256, real names Yahya Nsenge, listened to DMX, Kanye West, Jay Z, Eminem, Michael Jackson and later on in 2013 started to give an ear to Sarkodie who was rapping in Twi one of the indigenous languages spoken by the Ashanti people in Ghana.
Locally, there were names like GNL Zamba, Ruyonga and Tbro (who had pioneered rap in Rukiga) that further represented the idea that rap in an indigenous language was not so alien after all.
Closer to home, the ground had started to shift, thanks to a boy from Bushenyi whose never-seen style of writing and mellow voice was winning hearts one song after another. That boy was Ray G.
“It was easy for me to shift from the hardcore English rap that I had began with,” says Truth.
His debut Fly High came out in 2012 but it wasn’t until 2019 that he released a Runyankore title – Chunda. He says Hard Guy is so far his most successful song. It was one of the songs together with Weena that he performed in Lugogo alongside Ray G.
Leading a cognitive struggle like the one Ray G has fought for more than a decade is no walk in the park. Even the bravest of leaders have their fears. For Ray G’s team, that fear was how much breadth their next leap would measure. When would it be the right time to take a shot at the ultimate thing that defines musical greatness in Uganda’s context? Staging a concert in the Cricket Oval.
Initially, the plan was to hold the show at the UMA Showgrounds. But someone was willing to bet all their cards on the cricket stadium.
“I told his team UMA showgrounds would not work. I told them let’s do Lugogo Cricket Oval,” said events promoter, Nobat Twizire, in an exclusive interview with PLUGGED.
Twizire who runs NobatEvents was the concert promoter for the May 10 event. And he says from the onset, all factors seemed to point to the fact that the cricket stadium would be a jackpot.
In December, the singer had made headlines and topped social media trends for days after he had a standoff with Azawi on his home tuff. The bone of contention was – who performs first? Ray G had come out to fault Azawi for what he called a pattern of demeaning behavior by artistes based in Kampala at the pains of their counterparts who are based in the countryside.
The incident had split opinion on social media, stoked tribal sentiments with some sections arguing Ray G was too insignificant an artiste to begin picking wars with big names like Azawi who is not just signed to the biggest record label in East Africa but is also a Muganda. When he performed at the Enkuuka, the music festival supported by Buganda kingdom in Kampala weeks after the Azawi incident, Ray G was hurled bottles at.
READ MORE: In Mbarara, Ray G and Azawi flex on stage over who performs first
In Twizire’s opinion, both incidents were ‘good problems’ as they would evoke sympathy and drive sales up for the upcoming concert.
“I felt that there was an urge among his supporters to prove that their artiste deserves something big like that (staging a concert in the Lugogo cricket stadium).”
“You pick a bigger venue, the revelers will say if others can do it, why not us?”
The sentimental factors aside, Twizire said his decision was compounded by other variables, among them, the fact that “Ray G is a complete artiste”.
“If you listen to his melodies, the voice, his music and the way he arranges his work. And of course the language he sings. Because there are many Banyankore, Bakiga, Banyoro and Batooro in the Central. I considered all that.”
There was also the women. A key determinant for events promoter when it comes to which opportunities they choose to invest in. Artistes who have a strong appeal to the female demographic tend to win over investors.
“The events we organize are 70 percent supported by women. And the 70 percent will attracts the 20 percent of men. Ray G is one of those artistes who sings on stage and women cry.”
“It was a viable,” he adds, referencing the idea of sinking his money into Ray G’s concert.
Contrary to the norm – holding the main concert in Kampala and subsequent ‘Extras’ in other major towns across the country – Twizire was to invest in only one show. This would then prompt FOMO among the singer’s fans in the countryside, leading them to flock to Kampala.
And to achieve this, the marketing campaign had to be well choreographed, leaving nothing to chance. This because there was only three months between the day the idea was pitched to him and d-day.
Many of the factors that Twizire attributes the concert’s success to would mean nothing if the music – the core business of any singer – lacked a charm strong enough to have someone leave the comfort of their home to go endure hours in the cold among other risks.
There were times during his progression that gave him all the motivation to burn the midnight oil. Like when at a 2017 Purple Party event where he performed, he heard the emcee say “If you’re backstage and you don’t have a hit song, disappear”. Simply because the lineup of performers was too long. While he was lucky to perform, there was other budding talent that never did. It was such moments that pushed him to work hard.
“We knew it. Everyday we knew we had so much to do to get somewhere. Such moments only made us stronger. We didn’t take them in bad spirit,” Wavah says.
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Over the years, Ray G has employed different tactics to create the music that would spread beyond Mbarara where he is based. Trying out different tracks created by some of the finest producers in Kampala. One of them was Nessim.
It is the hungry and ambitious folks like Ray G that Nessim is now drawn to lately. Reason being, they are flexible and are willing to adapt to the new forces (sound) that have formed the soundtrack of their lives.
In an interview with PLUGGED, Nessim said; “As producers, we have tried to move forward but it’s the artistes that are delaying us. You make a good (edgy) track and give it to an artiste and then they put mediocre lyrics and melody onto it. They need to know how to sing on different tracks because tomorrow, Wizkid is going to give you a collabo and you cant put a line that matches his standards.”
The first of Ray G’s projects that the producer worked on was Nuunu. Followed by others like Eizooba, Weshe, Niiwe, Ringaniza among many others. For all these songs, Nessim oversaw the recording, mixing and mastering.
In enlisting the services of Nessim, one of the acclaimed producers in the country who has worked with big names like Tarrus Riley, Konshenz, Patoranking and Diamond Platnumz among others, Ray G believed tapping into the masterly of this beat maker would catapult his brand further. Especially as the debate on the need for Ugandan art to evolve to attract international attention grew louder.
“Yes, what he wanted was to get a new sound, to get a good sound. And that’s what he got,” Nessim says.
He says Ray G’s concert means a lot because that’s what every artiste is yearning for. Adding, it presented lessons for other singers.
Nessim agrees with the many that rank Ray G highly as a songwriter.
“I think his music speaks it all. Once you put his lyrics in English or Luganda, you understand who Ray G is. He is a genius. I rank him number one.”
“He knows what he wants. All I can say is, he is another story. We need to celebrate that guy because it’s not easy to fight from that side (West) to the Central. We should put respect to such names,” adds the producer.
Thirteen years later, it’s easy to assume winning the West over was easy in itself. Except it wasn’t.
Ray G’s first time in Mbarara was in 2013 to shoot a music video. Little did he know that this same town where he felt like a typical outlier would hand him GOAT status let alone nationwide fame.
One of the scenes in the Amarari video was shot at night. And those scenes were filmed on location in Mbarara, the first time he set foot in Mbarara. He had been born and schooled in the same district – Bushenyi – never mind that it bordered with Mbarara.
Born in a family of 10 in Kaburengye Igara, Ishaka, Bushenyi, his parents were peasants. His father issued receipts for buses while mother worked in the hospitality industry.
His singing goes way back to P.3. He joined the school choir, something that wasn’t a cup of tea for majority of the boys.
Later on he, in company of Nyangi, then his producer, would make a daring trip back to Mbarara that would set him on a new course never to look back.
The singer has previously said Lucky Dube’s deep and inspirational messages, Wizkid’s limitless ambition despite his age and Mowzey Radio’s exceptional talent are what gave him inspiration.
Nessim says: “We need to invent new artistes and to inspire the new generation of artistes. Some of our artistes have refused to admit that there are artistes or countries that are better than us in certain aspects.”
“If you believe that Nigeria is way better, we need to do what the people that are better than us are doing. Then after that, do what they cannot do. But you cannot do what they cannot do when you still can’t do what they do.”
The producer isn’t shy to point out the entitlement and complacency exhibited by the earlier crop of artistes whom he says are adamant to evolve and as a result have failed new talent. In elaborating his pains, he repeatedly uses the phrase ‘Music is young every time’. Implying that music trends evolve and to stay relevant, you must evolve with them.
What makes an artiste, he says, is their ability to create. Yet, in his opinion, lately majority of Uganda’s crop of singers have delegated this role entirely to the producers.
He cites the example of Rwanda where despite using their indigenous language, the artistes have worked with producers to create compelling melodies that have been well received across the region.
“That’s why I focus on new talent like Ray G. These are the guys that are inspired by the new generation of music. The old folks think they have names. They have failed to believe that even the young generation can inspire them.”
“Every generation has what it wants. You can’t force kadongo kamu on everyone simply because that’s what you want.”
Adapting to new trends also means artistes knowing what’s eargasmic to millennials and GenZers who are the biggest consumers of music today. And according to Nessim, that might imply utilizing young songwriters who are plugged into the trends that appeal to this audience.
But if there was anything to read from the May 10 concert, it was that the singer’s influence surpasses one particular generation, or sphere.
Present at the show was the political class, including Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Rt Hon. Thomas Tayebwa among a host of MPs from Western Uganda including Mwine Mpaka, Mwesigwa Rukaari and Francis Mwijukye among others.
“He’s (Ray G) powerful. We have been mocked, but we have poured cold water on that mockery from people in Kampala. I have been seeing mean comments online but we have proved them wrong,” said Mwijukye the MP for Buhweju county in Buhweju district.
I asked Truth what it felt like in the moment as he and Ray G towered over thousands of revelers that packed the cricket stadium in Lugogo. To be sharing stage with a Runyankore singing artiste who was headlining a show in a venue of that significance and what it meant for him.
“Even before the concert, at the presser, I said 10th May would be a musical celebration as well as a new beginning. We would be celebrating Western Uganda music and Uganda music at large. And that if it were successful it would open doors for other regional artistes. Mainly because of the stereotypes that have been associated with music from the West.”
He says he was happy and excited but also grateful to be living in such a “historical moment”.
However, as was the case with Ray G, even for Truth, there is work cut out for him in as far as building an audience that embraces new sounds is concerned. The rapper still contends with feedback that finds rap as a genre complex. Complaints that his lines are so fast that often times he loses the listener.
There was always going to be one steep hurdle for the defiant that Ray G had chosen to be. It possibly is that one simulation that his team forgot to run. Not that his odds would have been tilted fundamentally. That hurdle was politics. And he didn’t come face to face with it until he attempted to hit the big time on Kampala turf. It was apparent he was up against sentiments that wore tribalism on the outside while beneath were political undertones.
Long held politically-motivated frustration by those who felt a particular section of the country had dominated every field. The push back had little to do with the inability to interpret Ray G’s lyrics. For there was a time Pastor Okudi’s Wipolo was such a hit allover Uganda that it won the country its first Kora award. Racheal Magoola’s Obangaina didn’t have to be in Luganda to be an all-time classic either.
But as was the case when Bebe Cool was forced to halt performances after music lovers resented him for his political affiliation, or as is the case when the entire industry continues to pay the price for a dysfunctional copyright law, music can never be detached from politics.
Which is why, for Ray G, May 10 was a high-stakes affair. He had a lot to prove.
“I was not surprised by the turn out at the concert. What surprises me is the people who get surprised that he pulled off such a crowd or any milestone he achieves. It always takes me back to the fact that he still is on a journey to prove,” Ray G’s former manager said.
In his view, everything else is background noise and is bound to subside. What won’t change is the fact that he is an exceptional singer, and this will only continue to win him a new fan each day that passes.
Wavah describes Ray G as the most disciplined person especially when it comes to his career and business.
