Paheja Siririka and
Pinehas Nakaziko
WINDHOEK – The social media hullabaloo over Namibian kwaito pioneer King Tee Dee’s alleged removal from a song he initially did with Tanzania’s Diamond Platnumz is tarnishing the latter’s name, a spokesperson said this week.
The song, titled ‘One I love’, initially featured both artists, but a new version has since emerged in the past week, featuring Diamond Platnumz alone.
It has led to speculation on social media that the Tanzanian international star – who has worked with the likes of household American names such as Chris Brown, Neyo, Omarion and Rick Ross – was not impressed with King Tee Dee’s part of the song, and thus edited it out.
The song was released in February this year.
Speaking to New Era this week, one of three managers of Tanzanian superstar, Sallam Sharaf, said social media accusations against Diamond Platnumz were misplaced, unnecessary and tarnishing his image.
The haywire started when Diamond Platnumz posted a video of a song he simply titled as “The One”, which no longer features the Namibian veteran musician.
The video made it to more than one million viewers in just 17 hours of its release, the the Namibian supporters of King Tee Dee reacted angrily to the new developments, calling Diamond Platnumz all sorts of names.
They wanted to know why their favourite kwaito star’s version was ‘edited out’ of the new song and its new video.
Speaking from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in a telephonic interview with Entertainment Now!, a clearly annoyed Sharaf asked: “Did any artiste complain? Do you know what a version is?”
“Basically, I will leave it to your imagination type of comment without diving further into the terms and implications attached to the song”.
He said the hype on King Tee Dee’s exclusion from the latest version is creating “unnecessary confusion around the song” which is also tarnishing Diamond Platnumz’s image.
Sharaf was quick to mention that the song has a different version, which is not an unusual practice in the industry.
“King Tee Dee’s version is in Oshiwambo and Diamond’s is in Kiswahili,” an irrate Sharaf remarked.
The Diamond Platnumz’s management also said King Tee Dee has the right to do whatever he wants to the song as per their contractual agreement.
“If anyone wants to re-do the song, he only needs to contact Lizer, the producer of the song,” reads a WhatsApp text send from Diamond Platnumz.
Apart from that, King Tee Dee is also seemingly aware of the two versions on the song.
When asked by angry fans to enlighten them on the amendments to the song, King Tee Dee took to social media to say he was also as “shocked” as his fans.
Contacted for comment by this newspaper, King Tee Dee replied: “No comment”.