Ugandan music videos full of Jamaican stuff

MOSES ABEKA

One of the celebrated judges, Jasmine Dotiwala, a producer, broadcaster and columnist, has made public  her views about the Club Music video award submissions.  The award celemony slated for September is the  first of its kind, with an International panel of judges. Below are her words shared on United Kingdom’s top entertainment website Huffing post. Read through!

One thing that intrigued me was that it seemed that 99% of all music videos submitted, seemed to come straight from Jamaica, such is the passion of Ugandans brought up on dancehall music. With full patois accents and dancehall dance moves, it was like judging a Caribbean set of acts, as opposed to African. It reminded me of the early UK urban music scene when we imitated American hip-hop videos and accents before finding our own voices. Leslie informed me that in fact, dancehall is deeply entrenched in Ugandan culture. (This means that if you love reggae and dancehall culture then Uganda is the perfect spot for your next vacation as the music and food is very akin to Caribbean).

Another observation was that like many new acts around the world, their videos highlight sexy, scantily dressed girls gyrating wildly and rappers surrounded by their version of material wealth. All understandable, as this is what success looks like from many viewers points of view, I was eager to point out that this isn’t always what playlist managers are looking for though. After all, is it still sexy after your 1000th booty shot? Do we care about rappers that continue to tell us about their material wealth purchases? It was good to note that UK acts played in Uganda included Chip, Tinie, Estelle, Rita Ora, Skepta and L Marshall. #TeamUK!

Considering how young the Ugandan music industry is, I can see that the passion and D.I.Y attitude of the artists and filmmaker’s means that this is a market that will grow rapidly with increased reach of their acts the same way west African artists from Nigeria have broken into international music playlists recently.