It’s blowing up your airwaves right now but have you ever sat and wondered how marry you would have been if Ali Kiba was the one on the track and not Diamond?
Well sit down and let me take you on a journey of how Diamond stole the song right under Ali Kiba’s nose and how Ne-yo played along with the idea….totally savage!
If you can remember clearly, the main reason Ne-Yo came to Kenya was Coke Studio, the musical extravaganza which looks into tapping into some of the great talent Africa has to offer, bringing it together, fusing it and bringing out some of the dope musical renditions.
In that year, Ali Kiba was one of the artists in the lineup and so when Ne-yo touched down in Kenya and started working with the artists, the conversation was pretty much rife that the two would have a collabo.
It was mentioned but no details were yet to be discussed. Plus there was no hurry, the guy was pretty much going to be around for a while so there was no pressure; Ali Kiba would take his time and wait for the right opportunity to pounce.
Time progressed and Ali Kiba’s management which we all know is not the best in town took their time and a decision was made that they would approach Ne-yo when he was done with all his recordings.What they forgot is that they are hawks out here always looking to cash in on the next prey.
One such hawk is Sallam SK, Diamond Platnumz’s manager. He knows what he wants and he surely knows how to get it. And what he wanted right there and then was a collabo with the R&B star.
So he got his contacts and reached out to the man. First of all he declined sighting prior discussions with Ali Kiba but Sallam was insistent. And he had something to back it up, a whole load of cash.
So he asked how much Ne-Yo wanted to be paid for this collabo and he was asked to charge as if he was in talks with Gucci Mane or any other international star. He named his price and without wasting anytime Sallam flew down with the cash and with all the paper work in store and right there and then, a deal was struck and sealed.
This whole time Ali Kiba’s management was still in the dark, sitting pretty and waiting for the opportune time.
It was not until Diamond himself flew down that he started getting suspicious. Diamond showed up at Ignition Westlands where the second Ne-Yo party for fans was going down. The both of them were a tad too cozy so Ali Kiba and his management started doing their own investigations trying to find out what exactly was cutting.
It was not until later that they found out that Diamond had come down to record, specifically at Johari Cleff studios which is owned by legendary music goat Bruce Odhiambo.
So after the party at Ignition, the two sneaked out and headed for the studio with Ali Kiba in tow having realized shit had hit the fan. He arrived at studio a few minutes after them but it was too late then, it was water under the bridge. All his protests fell on deaf ears and when he threatened to take action, he was slapped with a contract on the face and he had no option but walk away totally wounded.
So don’t blame the guy for causing fracas when he spotted Sallam SK at the Chris Brown concert, he knew exactly what the man is capable of.