One of Namibia’s leading Kwaito stars, Morocky Mbwaluh, aka The Dogg, recently published his autobiography titled,Ther Dogg: Untold Story. As part of the reading culture campaign launched by the New Era Publication Corporation (NEPC) in conjunction with the Minister of Education, Honourable Dawid Namwandi, Artlife has been serialising this autobiography each Friday.
In Luderitz the next morning, I confronted him to ask if he meant what he had said and where our friendship stoop at that point, given what he had done the previous night. He apologised and said he was drunk, so we patched things up and I thought we were buddies again. That same night we had to perform. My song Onayena No. 9 features my high school friend, Joe Basson, commonly known as Auntie Sousa. So I expected Auntie Sousa to come on stage and do his part, but when he was due on stage with me, Gazza pulled him back. He did not want Auntie Sousa, someone whom he had met through me, to perform on my song. I could understand this, even though Auntie Sousa had a certain allegiance to Gazza as his backup dancer. So there I was on stage, performing alone. What goes around comes around, after my performance came his turn.
He had to do Koko, one of his hits back then featuring Sunny Boy, again someone he had met through me and claimed I took Sunny away from him.
Sunny saw what Gazza did during my performance and decided not to do Koko with Gazza, so when it was time for that song, Sunny refused to go on stage to perform alongside him. I was standing with Sunny and convinced him to go on stage and do his part. My take on this whole drama at the time was that this was a petty issue not worth holding a grudge against him.
A lot of things happened on our way to Lüderitz, which showed his total dislike of me as a fellow artist and a friend. I am not sure as to why he chose this journey to Lüderitz to make his feelings and hidden agendas known.
Upon our return from Lüderitz, I could feel the tension in the house and really couldn’t stand the atmosphere. The two of us stayed in one house in Hochland Park. For that period, I was the one buying food and paying the other bills necessary to maintain the house. He did nothing apart from just the posters advertising his album’s release.
Upon Gazza’s entrance into the game, I helped pave the way for him by introducing him to the people within the industry he needed to know.
One such person is one of the best if not the best music producer in the country, commonly known as Elvo. Elvo has done work on most if not all of Gazza’s productions to date. I introduced him to so many people in the game whom he today claims are his friends. This is because I was already in the game when he was trying to break through. Big Ben is another producer I introduced him to.
When he was an upcoming artist, his first time on stage was at the FNCC (Franco-Namibian Cultural Centre), he had to perform and was scared of the crowd. I was with Pablo that night. I tried encouraging and urging him to go on stage, but his fear was greater than my words. I knew I had to get him on stage somehow, so I went to buy him alcohol. It was a bottle of brandy that did the trick and he was not scared to go on stage after drinking it. Ever since that day, this is what he does before going on stage. There is so much about stage performance and presentations that I had to show him. That is just one of the many incidents I helped him through as an upcoming musician.
On a personal level, we were friends and we talked about everything within our lives. I remember the time when his girlfriend was pregnant, and he was in a confused state of mind. He came to me asking what he should do regarding the pregnancy- his first suggestion was to abort the baby.
I think the reason was that, despite him being a grown man, his girlfriend was still a learner in her Grade 11 or 12 of high school. I advised him against abortion. All these are indications of how close we were as friends in and out of the music industry. For him to have hated me to the extent that he harboured intentions of masterminding my downfall is beyond my imagination. I truly believed in this relationship.
I made sacrifices to ensure we both get something out of the music business.
Given what I went through with him, it pains me to hear him say that he hates me so much and was only with me to get his music career on track. Allegations became the norm when he was under the influence of alcohol, and I strongly believe that you tend to speak your mind when you are under such influence. Perhaps the alcohol reduced your level of fear or gives you balls to say things you feel but cannot say under sober circumstances.
From then on, we never really talked and our friendship started fading away. On several occasions, I tried to settle matters with him, but he was never interested. As a musician, there is nothing I miss about working with him. I contributed so much to his music-he did not do much to mine.
There are several other incidents in which he tried to degrade me, but I will highlight this one which stands out, it was some time in 2006. He was at Club La Dee Das with a friend named Sackman. Not surprisingly, I introduced him to Sackman. My girlfriend was also in the same club at the time. Gazza sent his sidekick, Sackman, to go tell my girlfriend that he wanted to have sex with her. This autobiography is not a platform for quoting his direct words as the tone of his words was too explicit, to say the least. Such words were an insult to my girlfriend, and I found them offending and derogatory.
This disturbed me a lot and so I called him the next day. If I am not mistaken, he was on his way to Gobabis. I demanded an explanation for the previous night, and his excuse was the outdated version of ‘’I was drunk’’, it was sad. He could not own up and take responsibility. This was very rude, and that lame excuse shows immaturity for someone who has a wife now and is a father. I made it known to him that it was clear he was looking for ways to get at me, and he should refrain from doing so through other people and instead face me like a man. To date, I have said all these things and he knows I represent the truth in this matter, that’s why he cannot face me.
OmPuff is an artist under Mshasho Records. In the past, he worked with Gazza, and this had led to Gazza accusing me several times of having stolen his artist. To set the record straight, I challenge anyone who supports this view or even Gazza himself to come up with a contract or anything that proves this artist was signed to his label. Yes, OmPuff backed him up on some of his performances, but that is where it ended. There was no contract whatever linking OmPuff to his record label. He was just an artist he saw and started exploiting. For the record, OmPuff was never paid for all his efforts with Gazza. He approached me to sign him up to Mshasho Records.
Gazza’s allegations of me having stolen Sunny Boy from him are also unfounded. As indicated earlier, I met Sunny back in the days during my short stay on campus. It was during those that I produced tracks for him such as Ubuntu Wa Bantu – the hit song, Serious and Ongwediva, which came out on his first album, Young, Black& Gifted. This was before he went on to do his one and only song with Gazza, Koko. The masses are not aware of this because Sunny only had those few songs and could not release an album yet. Given that history, plus the fact that I introduced Sunny to Gazza, how then can he, or anyone else for that matter, state that I stole Sunny from him. Look at Sunny’s albums and you will realise that I have done some work on all his releases. People do not have the whole picture, that is why it is easier for an opportunist like Gazza to mislead the fans.
Sunny was never contracted to any record company apart from Mshasho Records before he founded Greenhouse. What I have realised is that Gazza has developed a false sense of superiority. As a result, he probably believes that when we are to perform, the one who performs last is bigger than those who perform before him. One such incident is the Tafel Lager Year End Bash held on New Year’s Eve, 31 December 2007. He made it clear he wanted to be the last artist on stage, knowing well that, as the reigning Artist of the Year, the event organisers scheduled for me to be the last performer of the evening. His wish was just that – a wish. The organisers told him that it is their show and they are paying him, so he will perform before me and that his wish could only materialise if it was his show and he was the one paying them. In the end, I performed last. The crowd loved it and it was over. Artists should be bigger than petty issues like the order in which to appear on stage, and I think we will do much better by focusing on issues that matter.
This whole situation, labelled as “beef” by the media, and the public, went out of hand when fans began fighting each other over it. It is sad, to say the least. My efforts for a truce fell on deaf ears. I called him personally on his phone and nothing materialised. I even went to the extent of asking him to settle this misunderstanding on air. My sister, Magano, can also testify that I approached her several times for advice on how we can settle the matter. As an individual, I have tried my best and he knows it.
If you look at this conflict or battle from a strictly competitive point of view, you will realise that it has brought some much deserved attention to the local industry from politicians, non-music lovers and the public at large.
This has also heightened the competitive edge between us as artists and obviously raised the standard of our work. As a result, there is no room for complacency for either one of us. As pioneers of the local music industry, the other artists have also been forced to raise their game in order to reach the standard set by myself and Gazza.
There was a time we were both called in to work on an MTC commercial, despite our differences. It is difficult to say whether the two of us will ever work together again. On my part, I have no regrets regarding the whole conflict with him since I did nothing to offend him and, in addition, have tried several times, albeit in vein, to solve this problem with him. As a human being, I think it is upsetting to know that music lovers are divided in allegiance to myself and him. It is not anything to be proud of. When you hear that people had a fight owing to their different musical allegiances, it breaks your heart because music is a creation that ought to unite people, not divide and isolate them into camps.
Gazza and I are the biggest names in local music-our record sales, fan base and recognition are unmatched. In a way, people look up to us for inspiration, especially the young and upcoming artists. What example are we giving them?
I am a grown man, and if the two of us are brought to the table to settle our differences, I will bring my part before either one of us dies. You never know what may happen tomorrow. It seems so trivial in nature, but one of my people can kill him and in the same vein, one of his people can also kill me. In fact, given the current tensions musically between my record label and his, fans might injure or kill one another. The reported violence in the past relating to this ‘’beef’’ speaks for itself, and I would like to believe that people’s lives are more important than our egos. (To be continued next Friday)