2005 Ugandan Dancehall Video of the week #3

Next up is Jamila by Jose Chameleone:

This is a bit more lightweight and summery than my previous offerings, a nice combination of African pop and reggae stylings.

But don’t let the easy skanking fool you! This tune seems to be about wife-beating and has a disturbing statistic about its prevalence buried within the footage. I think the issue is dealt with in a less heavy handed (if you’ll pardon the expression) way than some other reggae tunes. “Don’t Bax Your Lady” by DC Ninjan on Unity Sound is a particularly excruciating example.

Jose seems a bit more media savvy than Master Parrott and DJ Micheal too, he even has his own myspace and wikipedia entry. Unfortunately they don’t give away too much biographical information, but there are some tunes to check out on the myspace and I did learn that Jose has scored an appearance on some kind of official world cup tune alongside Kelly Rowland.

Which even I realise is a big deal, but it seems like there is disquiet inĀ  Uganda about his success! Check this out from Uganda Musicians dot com:

All Ugandans are happy for this but our local musicians may think that its a lie and if not this guy uses witch doctors to be a star. Think no more but just thank God that Uganda has a talented artiste who sings what touches broken hearts. Infact we should consider Chameleone as Uganda’s Export since he fetches tax for the government in all his local and international concerts.

The accusations of witch-doctor bizness is a refreshing change from implications of casting couch scenarios anyway…

People with more patience than I have can figure out whether or not Uganda actually qualified for the world cup this year, but the rest of you might enjoy checking this topical tune from the Ugandan all-stars instead.

Me? I’m waiting for the first punch in the smacker when I say that Scientist is going to win the world cup.