The Mith and his crew. Right: Flex D’Paper and his crew receiving their awards. Photos | Isaac Ssejjombwe
The first plaque of the Ugandan Hip Hop award was all wooden with a star on top. Last year’s plaque was changed to glass with a silver round bottom and a golden star at the top. But with a new title sponsor on board this year, the 7th edition of the Uganda Hip Hop awards came with a new format.
Twenty two categories were awarded last Friday at the awards that took place at Motiv, Bugolobi as guests witnessed the biggest achievers in Uganda’s Hip Hop genre.
This year’s category had some big names missing out on the nominee list, including Navio who did not make it to the shortlist because he did not release any songs to submit within the year.
In the build up to the awards, there was a verbal war between two great artistes; Big Tril and Big Ben Sukuya over supremacy. Social media, especially Twitter was on fire for more than two weeks with the rappers trash-talking each other until it was decided that to settle the dispute, the two would have a rap battle at the awards night. We anticipated this to be the highlight of the show, but it never happened.
Big Tril was anticipated to face off with Ben Sukuya in a rap battle but that never happened.
The highlight, however, belonged to legendary Babaluku who walked away with a Lifetime achievement for his 20 plus years of serving communities with Hip Hop.
With such an honour, Babaluku in his acceptance speech that lasted more than 10 minutes, told rappers that Hip Hop was here to stay despite the challenges the genre is facing and that it was up to them to make sure of that.
“We are the Hip Hop family. We need to start honouring our culture loyally and bring the love. The love that makes us thrive, build, inspire and create this kind of opportunities. For the new schoolars, you did not know, when we were building, no one was celebrating us, there were no screams, there was no glitter and glamour, we were in corners at DV8, Sharing Hall etc. You need to know there has been progress,” said the Bataka Underground proprietor.
Before leaving the stage, Babaluku performed a song with two rappers he is mentoring in a cypher style.
Babaluku
The biggest winners of the night were Flex D’paper and The Mith, who each won two accolades; Flex’s Kampala Boy beat Wake’s Mwotty and Lagum the Rapper’s RZR to win Album of the Year, while his Cheptegei song featuring Navio, Fik Fameica and Modelo Kidz won Collaboration of the Year.
The Mith’s Welcome to UG remix won both Song of the Year and Video of the Year.
Yala MC defeated King Missy, Tushi Polo and Joyie7star in the Female Rapper of the Year category while Fik Fameica was voted Male Rapper of the Year, beating off competition from Flex D’Paper, Wake and The Mith in one of the tightest categories.
It was not just a night of awards but performances as well that came from BMG and The Mith, among others but it was Big Tril who was saved for last, giving the audience songs like Colour ya Zari, My Guy, Giddem and Parte after Parte.
The Ugandan Hip Hop Awards are an annual Hip Hop awards ceremony dedicated to providing a fair platform for all Ugandan Hip Hop acts, through an awards show that showcases the past, present and future of the genre in Uganda.