Bebe Cool – Awete

The minimal keyboard melody in this is a real winner, I think.

The crossword graphics are a nice touch, but some of the effects maybe bleach it all out too much. Respect also to the reappearance of Bell Lager and a particular sacred herb. Also the dialetic of surrounding yourself with bogling girls on the one hand and being booted out of your yard by an angry girlfriend is present and correct.

Bebe has collaborated with a bunch of other Ugandan stars, including Necessary Noize and Jose Chameleon. He is also married to Zuena Kirema, a former Miss Uganda contestant.

The dancehall star is having a pretty rough time of it this year, though. In January he was shot by a copper following a support slot for R Kelly in Kampala. Shortly after this a tyre blow out resulted in Bebe and his family crashing into a swamp and sustaining a number of serious injuries.

In July, his concert was disrupted by a bomb set by an Islamic terrorist group: “Most people who died were just in front of me. The blast was so loud—the next thing I saw were body parts flying over”. That all certainly puts my trials and tribulations this year in perspective and hopefully things will improve for Bebe now!

So this is the last installment of the series – everything on my cruddy VCD is now uploaded to Youtube. I’m sure some people will be breathing a sigh of relief at that, but I’m really pleased to have seen these again and am irked that there seems to be no obvious source of Ugandan dancehall available to me even in these days of “music like water out of a tap”.