Bebe Cool – Exclusive Interview

Controversial Ugandan master entertainer Bebe Cool is rocking Australia this week. Kip caught up with him moments after he jetted in. He shares his controversial thoughts on an array of topics in a candid Kip exclusive interview.

Kip: Bebe Cool, welcome to Australia

Bebe Cool: Thank you.

Kip: How was your flight?

Bebe Cool: The flight was good, smooth, though long.

Kip: I know you have only been here for a few hours. What is your first impression of Perth?

Bebe Cool: Good people, few people, no tension. Its my first time in the country. I can tell there is no tension here.

First Ugandan Artiste in Australia

Kip: As the first Ugandan artiste in Perth, how do you plan to rock the house? What is in store for your fans in Australia?

Bebe Cool: My fans are in for a treat. I will give them nothing but the best. I am very good at live performance and entertainment. It is therefore so good that I am the first Ugandan artiste to perform in Australia. I will set the bar high. The platform or picture that I am going to leave is 100% good. My hope is that people come for fun not trouble causing. I am 100% sure my concerts are going to be the best ever for my fans in Australia.

Kip: What is your itinerary?

Bebe Cool: Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and then back again to Perth.

Kip: Would you be more specific with the dates for each of those events?

Bebe: I have my first meeting with fans in Perth at Euro Bar Nightclub in Northbridge on Wednesday 12/12/12. It is the Bebe Cool welcome party. Then on Thursday we hit Adelaide where we shall have the first concert. On Friday the 14th I will be in Melbourne, on Saturday 15th I will be in Brisbane, the last concert will be here in Perth on Sunday 16th December 2012.

Kip: Where can your fans find the exact times and location for your events?

People can find this information on the Bebe Cool Australia Facebook Page. Niwakati Entertainment also has the tour details on their Facebook Page.

Kip: Good stuff. Ok, moving on… The name Bebe Cool… what does it mean?

Bebe: I started singing as a very young kid. They used to call me a Baby and I was so cool because I was a very shy guy. It is the opposite now, because I am trying to break through the shell. Most people take advantage of quiet people. So I try to make noise to avoid people coming on to me.

Thoughts on Piracy

Kip: Many of your fans abroad have probably got to know you through YouTube and others probably pirated your music on illegal download sites. What are your thoughts about music piracy?

Bebe Cool: Piracy is the the only way through which Third World artistes can get famous. Talent in Africa is just beginning to be recognized. We don’t have record companies or people who invest in real talent. The only way these kids can get to fame or to show the public what they can do is through piracy channels. I know it is not a good thing but it is the only option we have to become famous. All the rich artistes in Africa are rich due to piracy. Back in Uganda we don’t earn much money from CDs… but we are rich. We have houses, cars, hotels, everything. But we only get this money through concerts.

We know we can get more money, a hundred times more if we have copyright law operating. But it is going to take 200 years to make the copyright law work in Uganda. I don’t want to die a victim of the 200 years wait. Copyright laws come at a cost to the industry. If you look at what the Kenyan music industry is facing; it is facing a downfall due to the fact that they wanted to introduce the copyright law.

Kip: Are you saying that copyright laws in Kenya have hurt the growth of the music industry in Kenya?

Bebe Cool: 100% yes. To a level where it has forced the locals to look beyond the borders musically. I began my music journey in Kenya. I know that the Kenyan fraternity (the ones I blame for that issue) did not look far ahead. They wanted to climb the tree from the leaves not the stem. Things go step by step. You have to look at both the advantages and disadvantages. But in the case of Kenya, there was more disadvantages for the copyright laws.

Many people still cannot afford CD players. How are they going to buy CDs? They did not look at that. For Uganda we have managed to reject it and luckily enough it has worked. I am the guy spearheading the movement to go slow on copyrights laws enforcement. If we are to have it, we should have it in bits not the whole.

Kenya has not kept pace with Uganda. When I was in Nairobi, I used to get paid Ksh 150,000 for a concert, but today Kenyan singers don’t even get Ksh 50,000 for performing in concerts. That is so absurd.

Kip: What would an artiste of your stature get from concerts in Uganda?

Bebe Cool: In Uganda an artiste of my stature gets about USD$3000 a gig and I do 3 gigs a day. And that is on normal days, Monday to Monday, not in December where we go haywire doing six to eight gigs a day.

Kip: Do you make more money from you concerts abroad or from your Ugandan concerts and why is that?

Bebe Cool: I make more from Ugandan concerts, because in international concerts you only make money when you perform live, as in you move with a band. In the last 5 years we have only been performing for East Africans and the numbers are limited abroad. If a promoter says I am going to pay you USD$30,000 he is not going to make money because the audience is limited.

But if you are lucky and you break and you can attract all cultures and types of people to listen to your music, then you are above the line. But at the moment very few African artistes are above the line to the level of doing world level concerts where all cultures are represented. Few African artistes would be able to put a poster in a foreign city and have the average man on the street come for the concert.

Kip: You advocate going slow on copyright laws. Would you actively encourage your fans to pirate your own music?

Bebe Cool: No I wouldn’t do that. I would ask people to buy my CDs, but the actual fact is that it would only be people in Kampala or in Nairobi who would afford to buy my CDs. How many people can afford CD players outside the big cities in Africa? Very few.

Kip: The majority of your fans will only ever get to listen to your music for free on radio without ever planning to buy a CD… would you consider that a form of piracy?

Bebe Cool: First of all I don’t agree with the statement that radio is a form of piracy. That is a very sick mind if anybody has that mind. Because radio is advertisment. And if you are not advertising what kind of business are you conducting?

The actual sense is that you are lucky to be played on radio. If radio stations don’t play your music, no one will ever know you. Radio and TV are the master keys to an artistes business success. Radio listeners may not pay but being on air is what drives people to my concerts, where they pay.

Kip: Is it true that you, as artistes, actually pay radio stations to get your music on air?

Bebe Cool: Yeah, if a business has a marketing department and the marketing department has a budget, then why not?

Kip: In Kenya a lot of artistes are riding the gravy train through Safaricom with their songs being played as ringtones. How is that working out for you in Uganda?

Bebe Cool: Ringtones pay well, the more hits you have the better. It is working well. I get paid well. It is the only other channel that has come up of late. Maybe a year or two.

Kenyan Roots

Kip: You mentioned that your music journey began in Kenya. Who are some of the Kenyan artistes that you worked with?

Bebe Cool: My major breakthrough for what I would call my international music came in Nairobi. I stayed in Nairobi for 3 years, worked with Ogopa DJs; I am one of the founders. I worked with the likes of Kalamashaka, Ndarlin P, Redsan, Nazizi and others.

Kip: You started with collaborations at Ogopa DJs. But you have been on your own for a while now. Is there plans for doing more collabos?.

Bebe Cool: 100% yes. Of Course I would love to do collabos. But you have to look at factors such as whether you are you going to be able to work with those artistes and how will it benefit the fans. What does it mean?

You need a lot of collabos to build a name, get established, but now that we have become big, collabos don’t add as much value as they used to those days. Doing a collabo with Beanie Man is as good as doing a collabo with a kid in Uganda. If I do it with Beanie man because he has come to Uganda how am I going to benefit tomorrow after he leaves?

Collaborations are not a major issue though working together inter-Africa is still very important.

Thoughts on Akon

Kip: Talking of Inter-Africa working together, what do you think of Akon’s recent foray into Kenya to work with local artistes?

Bebe Cool: It is the first thing I criticized him about 5 years ago. I performed with Akon on the first concert he did in Tanzania. He was very good. He had just broken. But I was disturbed all along as to why he was not active with artistes in Africa even though he had the platform, the company, and the talent is there.

He can make more money than many Americans can out of Africa, by signing African artistes. They don’t even need to be signed to work in America. They can be signed to inter-work in Africa. He is just late.

Kip: So you support his latest efforts however late?

Bebe Cool: 100% I support him, but I would like to see him do more to encourage African artistes to perform in Africa. Africa is a very continent. It is a big market.

Don’t take them abroad before they break in Africa. It is easier to become big in Africa then become big in the world, than it is to be big in America and work backwards.

Pan African Domination

Kip: Do you have plans for inter-working in other African countries such as Nigeria, Ghana etc?

Bebe Cool: Yes, but I take my time. It is also important to calculate the timing. The timing is important. Nigerian artistes are becoming more interested in working with Americans and working in the US.

And that is the best time to target their home as foreign artistes, because they are not there. Sooner or later by the time they realize they should be home, then you are in their country like no man’s business.

Kip: That reminds me of how Lingala artistes were able to dominate East Africa …

Bebe Cool: Exactly… Kenyans were looking for American music while Zaireans were trooping to Kenya and Uganda. By the time we realized it, the famous music was Lingala.

Music and Inspiration

Kip: Do you write your own music?

Bebe: Yeah

Kip: Where do you get the inspiration for your material?

Bebe Cool : I do a lot of inspirational songs, real life music, so get my inspiration from the things I go through. I have more than 250 songs out there. At the moment I have more than 30 songs in store.

In Uganda we don’t do Albums. My rule is to keep recording a song every week. Once a song is done, it is done, I don’t look at it again. When there is need for a hit like when I have pressure from other singers, I just need to tell my people to release it.

All the people who work with me in music know I do not believe in rushing. When people are working on my project they are sure am waiting for the right time. I can be here in Australia and make a call home right now to release two singles depending on who has released what.

Bebe Cool Retiring?

Kip: Not planning to retire any time soon?

Bebe Cool: Oh no. Basically it is like I have just began. If it is a journey to number 100 am on 2.

Kip: What can your fans expect from Bebe Cool from this day going forward?

Bebe Cool: I know people who follow who my career know that I am surrounded by controversy and I never cease to surprise people. However, whichever step I take it is crucial for people to know that I intend anything I do. The mission is not to stop in Uganda or Africa, my interest is to break world wide and that is moving on well, the steps are good.

I intend to do reggae music well. To be the symbol of African reggae music at the world stage. It will take time, but the journey has began.

Kip: Finally, is there any message that you would have for any upcoming artistes in Uganda and Africa in general?

Bebe: Trust in God. If you want to be successful you need to have a goal. Not only in music… if you have a goal, then you are working towards something. Most people wake up in the morning and work without a target or a goal.

You also need to have a plan to get to your goal… and patience. Everything in life needs patience. You should never get discouraged by people or made to go off your plans. In showbiz people talk too much. Little do they know that they do not know why you do what you are doing.

The basic issue is that you have to stick to your goal. Hard work pays, and totally avoid drugs. It is the basic issue that keeps derailing singers off their life path.

Kip: Thank you very much and I am sure your fans will have a good time.

Bebe: Definitely yes.