The whole King Tee Dee/Diamond Platnumz situation that unfolded this week had me in my feels. I don’t know what makes me more mad…the fact that Diamond Platnumz broke an unwritten rule, the fact that black Twitter chose to poke fun at King Tee Dee or the fact that King Tee Dee’s PR team failed to do damage control. 

First things first, F*** Diamond Platnumz! I mean who the heck does this guy think he is? You don’t do that! I don’t care what the agreement was between the two, there are just some things you don’t do! That’s why we have unwritten codes in life. Bro code, guy code, moral code…etc. What Diamond Platnumz did amounts to artistic treason! You “woke” farts championed campaigns to mute R.Kelly and Michael Jackson. Where’s the campaign to mute Diamond Platnumz? 

Early reports on the matter suggested that both camps agreed to have freedom over the song if that is factual then the person who negotiated for King Tee Dee needs to be fired! How do you agree on such a clause? How do you negotiate to make your client look dom? Who was stupid enough in King Tee Dee’s management to allow for a clause where Diamond Platnumz can release a whole song and video without the featured artist? It makes no freaking sense! 

If there was no clause permitting such action and Diamond Platnumz consciously chose to remove King Tee Dee’s bit, release the song and publish a video, then honestly, Diamond Platnumz has no respect whatsoever! If it is the case that Diamond Platnumz had no legal right to remove King Tee Dee from the song and publish a video than Diamond Platnumz not only showed King Tee Dee the middle finger…he spat on all of us!  

Can we address the lack of PR on behalf of King Tee Dee though? Assuming that he has a PR team/agency, whoever is in charge of his PR was supposed to be on top of this and state Mshasho’s position on the matter. The “don’t say anything” approach does not hold water for a brand as commercial as King Tee Dee. A statement pronouncing King Tee Dee’s position on the matter and a bit of damage control would’ve done the trick! You can’t wait for a whole week to do this kind of thing. It has to be immediate and convincing! 

This should serve as a lesson to creatives in the country. The strategy of collaborating with so-called international acts does not always work for us. International acts simply don’t respect Namibia. They don’t know us and really couldn’t give a rats a** about what we stand for. 

King Tee Dee’s PR team failed him. Whoever negotiated on behalf of King Tee Dee on what could’ve been the collaboration of the year, failed him! Black Twitter failed King Tee Dee! The righteous “wokes” failed King Tee Dee. Namibia, we failed our son of the soil! We ought to be ashamed of ourselves!  
  
Until the next loop, we say “GMTM”!
NSK is a professional MC. For bookings, email naobebsekind@gmail.com
@naobebsekind (twitter)