Left to right: Mark Baguma, Zigi Nana and Shadrack Wabwire while extreme right is Rulz and Bash Killa. PHOTO/COMBO
The Grammy Awards took place last week in Los Angeles. The biggest winner of the night was Kendrick Lamar, who diss song towards Canadian rapper Drake took home five awards, including Song of the Year and Record of the Year.
This was just another milestone onto the rapper’s unprecedented run that saw him dominate the charts after a publicised rap battle with the Canadian rapper, a Superbowl announcement which will see him become the first rapper to headline American football’s biggest night and a Grammy Awards clean sweep.
However, for many Africans who pay attention to the Grammy Awards, there three categories which most of them pay attention to, Best Global Album, Best Global Performance and Best African Music Performance; the category dedicated to African music is one of the many specific categories such as the Latin Music Album which was only introduced in 2024.
Much as the category seeks to embrace all African music from Benga to Afrobeats, 90 percent of the category nominees since it was introduced have all been from the same country, Nigeria, though the winners have been from South Africa, thanks to Tyla’s win for Water and Nigeria’s Tems for Love Me Jeje. Tems faced competition from fellow country men and women Yemi Alade for Tomorrow, Asake and Wizkid’s MMS, Burna Boy’s Higher, and Chris Brown’s collaboration with Lojay and Davido, Sensation. Either way, a Nigerian was going to win a Grammy Award.
According to the Grammy website, interpolating an identically titled 1997 hit from Seyi Sodimu that’s regarded as an African pop classic, Love Me JeJe is an Afrobeats tune as tender as the pidgin phrase that makes up its title.
But the category most Ugandans, or those that knew cared about was the Best Global Music Album where Burna Boy, Tems, have become habitual nominees. This year, Tems was nominated for her album Born in the Wild, which is mainly RnB. She was in the category alongside Rema, for He is, Ciro Hurtado’s Paisajes and Antonio Rey’s Historias de un-Flamenco.
The Ugandan attention, however, was on American singer Matt B, who was nominated for his album, Alkebulan II. The album is a follow up to his debut album, Alkebulan which featured Ugandan artistes Eddy Kenzo and UgaBoys.
The song Gimme Love alongside Eddy Kenzo was nominated for the Best Global Performance in 2023 when the category was new, his other song alongside UgaBoys was submitted but did not get a nomination.
In 2023, Matt B, real names Matthew David Benson, embarked on the production of his follow-up album, Alkebulan II featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Alkebulan is the ancient, indigenous name for Africa. It means “Mother of Mankind.” To musician Matt B, this place helps him reconnect with his African heritage and culture, a background he knew little about as a child in the south side of Chicago. Alkebulan II is Matt B’s second album in this journey.
Like the first album where Eddy Kenzo and UgaBoys featured on Gimme Love and Gunjale respectively, it’s sequel features at least three Ugandans as writers, producers and composers.
As far as the Grammy Awards are concerned, by extension, even when it’s Matt B that picked the accolade, these too are winners. The heavily Afrobeats album by an American RnB of Nigerian descent needed a lot of fine-tuning from the motherland and once again, Ugandans were part of the creatives who came in handy. The 10 track album features at least five Ugandan artistes in both producing and writing roles. It is hard thinking of just one song without a Ugandan on it.
Who are these Ugandans? Zigi Nana
Born Niwanyanya Johnbosco, he is an Afrobeats artiste and songwriter based in Kampala. He prefers calling his style of music Afrofusion. He has, however, released songs such as Chali Wange, a song that appreciates the values of friendship. On Matt B’s album, he was a contributor on the song Midnight Train, which appears third. He also offered his services on Kholwani,Zigi Nana is an artiste whose career seems to be starting, neither his YouTube or Spotify are big enough on numbers but we can only imagine what may happen after contributing to a Grammy Award winning album, only the sky can be the limit.
Rulz
Real name Rajab Kagembe, he released his new EP, Set of Rulz, at the end of the year. He is one of those artistes mainstream Uganda would easily label a planned artiste. He does Afrobeats, sings mainly in English, has a refined audience and also works a lot with Axon… (ring a bell?) Well, the singer and songwriter did some work on Matt B’s Alkebulan II.
Bash Killa
The producer and sound engineer has in the past worked with Martha Mukisa on songs such as Nkulinze and Freaky Friday by the UgaBoys. On Matt B’s album, he has credits on No Wahala, Kholwani, Purpose, Renewal and Midnight Train. Most of the songs mirror the African surroundings, the chants, birds and different ambience sounds that easily relax. He delivers a production triumph on many of his songs.
Mark Buguma
He is also a little-known singer and songwriter. He has released one known song, Gimme Your Love under his alias Mark Elnino. On Matt B’s Alkebulan II, he co-wrote the song No Wahala.
Wabwire Shadrack
He trades as Bit Music, little known yet his name is all-over this album. From Wambile, Intuition, Lost Drums to The Creator. Wabwire like Bash Killa is a producer with a few songs to his name as the artiste. His music is heavily Afrobeats-influenced but also picks many elements from other African genres such as Amapiano, especially on Matt B’s album.
