EMOTIONALISM: Why I Think Bahati Is Using Denno’s Blindness For His Own Selfish Gains. I Don’t Trust This Boy Bahati At All! I Don’t Believe Denno’s Story Either!

For the last one week or so,famed Gospel singer and perennial whiner Bahati launched some unique Facebook campaign promoting what he called ‘Story Yangu’ and even gathered a motley crew of acclaimed faces and voices to help him shore up the anticipation for what he was zealously promoting.

The gang was impressive; from the boardroom types to the legends,Bob Collymore to Suzanna Owiyo to Leonard ‘The One and Only’ Mambo Mbotela. And with such a crew at your corner,helping you push a campaign and build momentum,I expected Bahati would launch something we’d never seen it heard or imagined over. I expected he’d launch a 2017 political campaign,or a church. Or school. Or NGO.

I mean,if have to sustain something so fervently,build up so much anticipation,make everyone stay on their tenterhooks so much,then you better shock us. But was I rewarded for my anxiety? After those long 72 were finally over? Absolutely NOT! Bahati didn’t do something absolutely historic. He just launched a song. And a video. Singing and sounding like he always has.

You don’t gather the whole city,interrupt everyone’s schedules,scribble stuff on Manila papers,use radio DJs and presenters,pull Leonard Mbotela from retirement and make Ommy Dimpoz relevant again just to launch a song. Especially,that song.

But I have to give it to him for somehow managing to create such a successful buzz for a single,something the likes of Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift have done to brilliant results. Unfortunately,unlike them,his surprise wasn’t really one. It’s something we’d almost guessed he’d do. And we were right.

The video too,was something my brother would shoot on a lazy Friday. With a borrowed camera and an ad-lib script. And I suspect that’s exactly how it was shot ; on a lazy afternoon and an ad-lib script.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,Bahati,for all his life and awards,MUST STOP exploiting his childhood tribulations for hits. And for relevance. And even after we’ve had this talk a million times,Bahati,who I suspect never reads my advice or never finds reason to act on it anyway,proceeds to,once again,milk his childhood troubles dry. And remind us,for the 1000th time this year,how he was brought up and what a messed up childhood he had. As if that’s not something he’s told us like a billion times before. Every week.

But for someone who suffers from an acute songwriting deficiency,and someone who,save for the genre he picked for music and the nature of his past,wouldn’t even be relevant in the first place,the ‘Story Yangu’ route is not something we really didn’t see coming.

Bahati,nurtured in the knowledge (and he’s right) that most Kenyans live below the poverty line,with barely anything to hold on to,any money to spend,ability to school and/or lack of a schooling experience and a warm,stable home,just like him,decided to lunge at this niche and to constantly do songs for this particular group of people who,by singing about stuff they relate to,will idolize you,be a fan of you and probably enrich you. Same technic applied by most of the gluttonous scumbags we call City Preachers.

Bahati and his exploitative clique of handlers know all too well that his type of music and outstanding lack of skill in it CANNOT appeal to the regular,smart guy who actually knows better and has choices in life. And that’s why,given the liberty of the genre of music he does and the incredible mediocrity of most of what he puts out,he decided to sing FOR the poor and the weak and the desolate.

Most of his fans,and most of the fans of Kenya’s pop Gospel anyway,are not exactly the smartest people in town. Either mentally or even socially… And to appeal to them,and make them keep buying your CD at a hundred Bob and thronging your PCEA concerts, you must relate with them,and sing about the poverty they still live in,the horrible past you co-experienced with them and to constantly talk about stuff as emotional as ‘Usilie Mama’, ‘Mungu anakuona ‘ and ‘Niliteseka sana’.

After waiting for the big surprise,which turned out to be Bahati doing the obvious ; tagging at our emotions,I felt like he needed Denno more than Denno needed him.

I felt like,for someone who actually studied psychology in College,Bahati’s sole purpose of enlisting Denno in the song,was NOT for Denno’s gain but Bahati’s mercenary purposes.

Bahati,and I hope he can be honest with himself,must have felt that Denno’s inability to see,is something he can cash on. And given the outstanding success of the ‘Mbona’ hit song that Denno did with Daddy Owen couple years ago,Bahati must have wanted to reprise that same success. And,just like Mbona,emerge with a hit of his own,one that,much to his joy,would not just rule the airwaves for months on end but also make stupendous financial returns. And that’s about to start happening.

Yes,I said it!

Bahati started his grovelling Facebook tirade by first talking about Denno’s past hit ‘Mbona’, and then telling his fans what a mess Denno has become of late,how,despite the sudden fame and astounding success of his hit,he still was living in penury at at the last thread of hope. And after the blah blah blah, Bahati said that he had jumped to Denno’s rescue and that by doing a song with him,he’d – or hoped he had-rescued Denno from his desperation. Oh Lord. You need some vodka to understand this joke.

You want to ask,why,if ‘Mbona’ is still making bank and if Denno is still actually receiving his royalties,is Denno still poor and needy?

Or is Daddy Owen pocketing all the MSCK,PRISK and what have you returns? Leaving Denno high and dry?

If not,then what does Denno do with the royalties money he collects/collected? Now that,according to Bahati,their hit song still makes bucks and/or made some serious bucks?

And didn’t Daddy Owen even give a cheque worth Ksh.1 Million to Denno ?? What did Denno do with it?

Is Denno allowed to be financially reckless just because he is blind? Should his inability to see make us NOT question his business moves? And how he has been handling his money?

Also,by doing a song with Denno,what exactly did Bahati do to alleviate Denno from this continued streak of misery? Will that all of a sudden jolt Denno to financial bliss? And eradicate what Bahati wants us to believe he’s going through?

Bahati,by collaborating with Denno and making such a fuss of it,will surely make huge amounts of cash from this song. It’ll be one of the MOST DOWNLOADED and INSTALLED songs on Safaricom’s and other network’s playback music platforms.

It’ll be huge on rotation on all radio and TV stations which will automatically translate to more royalty revenue.

And there’ll be more than a million ways Bahati and his camp will milk the lucrativeness of this song.

It will be a hit ; not because it’s good but because it’s been shoved down our throats,bears a traditional sorry,pitiful message and also because one of its singers is blind and we are hereby obligated by nature to LIKE the song and do what’s necessary for Denno.

Question remains,did we like the song because it was good or because,for the umpteenth time,Bahati played the emotional card to get us to like him and even give a f*ck??

Denno,according to Bahati,wanted a business to be started for him. He didn’t ask to be brought back to the industry. He didn’t ask for a shitty collabo either. So,by doing a song with him,what was Bahati’s motive? To help Denno in his hour of need or to capitalize on Denno’s misery and have the hottest song of this month?

And after all the monies have been collected,how much will Bahati pocket? And what’s Denno’s share in it?

If this will be the end of Denno’s tribulations,then fine. But I highly doubt it.

Denno MUST REFUSE to come out of this collaboration of convenience empty handed. And he must REFUSE that the troubles of his last song follow him even with his one.

After all,Bahati wanted his fans to,as usual,go all emotional and teary and touched. And he achieved it.

Not because they song was any good (Infact,it’s pathetic). But because we’ve been forced to sit back and listen to get another sorry story. And reverently act on it. Because one of it’s singers is handicapped.

Bahati has mastered his audience. And mastered the art of feeding them nothing but tear baits.

I’d call him smart for that. If only it wasn’t such an obscene and selfishly detestable thing to do.

 

I dont trust Bahati! No one should!

Meanwhile,here’s the song. Bore yourself.

{youtube}yYHB-ED_osM{/youtube}