Pallaso says Sheebah’s manager is using her to attack him. PHOTO BY Abubaker Lubowa
Music battles: It all started with Pallaso leaving Team No Sleep to form his own Team Good Music. Although it was said to be a mutual agreement, only time would tell and not before long controversial songs have been released. Whatever happened to Sheebah and Pallaso, Lawrence Ogwal spoke to the two.
Pallaso
What has Pallaso been up to?
Pallaso has been doing music; I have a new song which has become a favourite in just two weeks. I also have the Mama Concert on August 28 at Freedom City. I also have a remix of Bubble which I did with Vector, and Bagwaamu among others.
Speaking about Bagwaamu, what inspired that song?
The idea of Bagwaamu came from Jeff Kiwa my former manager who enjoys using artistes to fight his wars. Currently, he is using Sheebah to fight me in her song Wantama, which was directed at me. Sheebah is my friend but Jeff Kiwa tried to make us enemies. So I couldn’t just sit back and let them attack me.
So does that mean you and Sheebah are beefing?
For me, it was not beef or hatred but rather some kind of musical battle, but many people started saying I am attacking a woman. Bob Marley once said music hits but you will never feel pain so I also kept it a musical war. I am a brutal guy but I can’t fight someone like Sheebah and when I knew it was going nowhere, I stopped. I have many danceable songs such as Bubble, Go Down Low, Omugongo, Twatoba which are not hatred songs.
So you are saying you have no issue with Sheebah?
She has always come out to say she is a woman and I am trying to fight her, so I decided to let go because I don’t want to hurt my good friend.
You say Jeff Kiwa is using Sheebah to fight you, were you and Sheebah talking after you left TNS?
Pallaso and Sheebah before the ‘beef’
We weren’t talking. Sheebah had changed and most of the time when I met her at concerts and said ‘Hi’, she wouldn’t reply, so I decided to give her a break.
Tell us about that time you knelt on national TV and asked her for forgiveness on air.
I have always loved my mother and when I was on TV, I knelt down to thank my mother for all the good things she has done to me and my brothers. I sent the message for all mothers in the world because the following weekend was Mother’s Day. The next day, I posted the same photo on my Facebook wall and thanked the mothers again and in the same message, I replied to Sheebah’s apology because she had apologised to me before on social media. It was the media that twisted things. I was thanking mothers in the world, Sheebah came in as a by the way.
But they say you apologised first and then Sheebah accepted your apology.
Like I told you before, she is being used. When she apologised to me on Facebook, she pulled down the post a few minutes later, perhaps because Jeff Kiwa asked her to. Sheebah is an innocent person stuck between choosing a good manager and a good friend. Jeff Kiwa is a good manager no doubt.
You just acknowledged that Jeff Kiwa is good.
Yes, he is a good manager for many people, but not for me because he is a conman. The time I worked with him, I got no international gigs but when I left Team No Sleep and formed Team Good Music, I have had international collaborations; I also had my first concert, which was a sellout.
Why did you leave Jefff Kiwa?
Jeff was a manager who didn’t show me any receipts after our performances. At times when we performed with Sheebah, he would pay her more yet we performed only our collabos. (The two did Mundongo and Go Down Low). At times they would call him asking for me at an event and he would instead end up saying I was not available but Sheebah was. And this was in my presence.
What happens to fans who still want to see you and Sheebah perform together on stage?
Music is like a buffet, fans can choose what they want to consume and leave out what they don’t want or if they don’t see what is not available, they can go on and look for other options. Right now, I am focusing on other projects, I am working with Jennifer Full Figure and Rhoda K.
What if she approached you to work together again?
She might find me with lots of music in studio, meaning I cannot work with her because I will be working on my music. Either way if I am to work with Sheebah again, if God allows, Jeff Kiwa should not be in our lives.
What is your statement to fans regarding the situation between you and Sheebah?
Sheebah is a woman, she has female energy and so she gets so emotional. But she needs to stop allowing to be used, it has always been love between Sheebah and I but when she fights me I don’t think it is good for her business. I am not going to attack Sheebah again, I respected her apology. I wish her well in her career, after all she is a good artiste but if she doesn’t want to change as a person, it is okay.
Sheebah
It’s been long since you talked to Sqoop. What’s going on?
Sheebah Karungi is busy doing music. I am always in studio recording songs, performing at concerts and I just finished shooting my new video for Kisasi Kimu.
Speaking about being busy in studio, tell us about your song Wantama.
Wantama is a song that was written for me by Diamond Oscar. It is just like any other song and the lyrics were inspired by how women are treated by their husbands in marriage. Women go into marriage to stay for long but a man stops appreciating her, mistreats and cheats on her, so when she decides to leave, he comes back pleading only to find she’s long gone.
But Pallaso says you sung that song for him?
Like I explained before, the song is not about anyone but if Pallaso thinks it is about him, then he should go on because he thinks he fits in it and that’s what he does.
Do you have any problem with Pallaso?
I don’t have any problem with Pallaso but many people think we have indifferences. Pallaso has his own beef with my manager Jeff Kiwa which I am not involved in. My entire music career, everyone knows I have never beefed with anyone.
But Pallaso says your manager is using you to fight him?
Men fight with fellow men. If you have a problem with a fellow man, why do you bring in a woman to help you fight. Pallaso is just a coward; he should come and face Jeff Kiwa instead of attacking an innocent person like me.
Where do you think all this began from?
I don’t even know because after releasing the Nkwatako video, I also released Wantama, which Pallaso hurried to claim I was singing about him. Before long, people were telling me he had released a song called Bagwaamu directly hitting at Jeff Kiwa and I. From then, he started engaging in a social media war, which I didn’t involve myself in.
Recently, Pallaso sent you an apology on his Facebook page?
I only follow up what is happening on my social media pages and that is Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I didn’t see the apology but my team (Sheebaholics) told me Pallaso had posted an apology for me on his Facebook page.
Did you accept the apology?
Why would I accept the apology? What has Pallaso done to me? He should instead apologise to his former manager Jeff Kiwa because he is the one he is at war with.
There was an apology on your page to Pallaso and he said you posted it but pulled it down.
I have never posted anything on my Facebook page apologising to Pallaso. If anyone has that evidence, they should show me the post. I don’t have a social media manager, I run my own pages. Whoever posted the apology on a Facebook page called Sheebah is an impersonator because I don’t know about that page; my page is verified.
Do you think you will ever work with Pallaso again?
Pallaso has a problem with Jeff Kiwa and he is my manger, he tells me who to work with and who not to work with. I am sure he doesn’t have a chance working with Sheebah again, but I am not God, you never know one day Jeff Kiwa will not be there and I will work with Pallaso again… if God wishes.
So what next for fans of Pallaso and Sheebah combined?
I had my fans before Pallaso came to Uganda and I was doing my music. When Pallaso came, he did his music. If he wanted to have the Pallaso and Sheebah fans, then he shouldn’t have left Team No Sleep to form his own group.
He blames it on Jeff Kiwa being a conman.
I wouldn’t be working with Jeff if he was a conman, besides, he has helped me grow in my music career.
That aside, you premiered your Nkwatako video in a big way, should we call it a concert or we have one coming?
When God wishes I will have a concert but for now I am not rushing because when the right time comes, I will want to have a beautiful concert. About Nkwatako, we did it once and we were just giving it a try. I thank God it came out well but it doesn’t mean that we shall continue premiering all my videos in the same way.
Any message to your fans on the issue going on between you and Pallaso?
There is no message for me to send out because there is no need to send it out.
Jeff Kiwa
Jeff Kiwa
Jeff Kiwa, the manager of Team No Sleep, says Pallaso has never been a member of the group.
“I know the Mayanja family (Chameleone and his brothers) and I have seen their careers develop to where they are today. Even Sheebah knows that Pallaso has never been signed to Team No Sleep. I was only helping him as a friend.”
Kiwa also says he has never received money on behalf of Pallaso because he has never worked with him. “I don’t just manage artistes because they are talented, there is also the aspect of not feeling (not liking) someone,” Kiwa said. Pallaso was a talented artiste but I did not feel him (like him) as a person and just wanted to help him as a friend. “I can never work with him, I am sure that’s why he was angered and always attacks me in media interviews and in his songs”.
Who is Jeff Kiwa
As someone who does less media Interviews and he boasts about it, Jeff Kiwa’s profile is not known to many and the less information about him dates back to Dr Jose Chameleone’s music career. Jeff was the first to manage Chameleone from the early 2000 until 2008, managing the entire Leone Island crew which had Radio and Weasel then. In 2008, he left Chameleone and went with Radio and Weasel to start the Goodlyfe Crew but they parted ways in 2014.
Pallaso then founded Team No Sleep with artistes Sheebah, Bakri, ‘Pallaso’ (as we thought), Lydia Jasmine and the late AK47. Pallaso left the group early last year in March when AK47 died, Lydia Jasmine also left the group. TNS currently has two artistes; Sheebah and Roden Y.
