By Ahmad Muto
BET award winner and Grammy nominee Eddy Kenzo was not going to let the spotlight shine on The Triplets Ghetto Kids without him.
He has now demanded that he is recognized as the hand that lifted the children from oblivion to global overnight stardom when he got them off the streets, dusted them, dressed them in some colourful outfits, put a script together and got them to dance in his Sitya Loss music video. The one key that opened for them all the doors they now walk into with their heads high.
This was while appearing on a local radio station over the weekend. He claimed that he gave them their suggestive trade name, Ghetto Kids after realizing their original name, The Triplets left out a major detail of their identity.
Kenzo even invoked the name of his baby mama, singer Rema Namakula as his witness the day he first saw the dancers deep in the night and sympathized with them. “I was touched. I was with Rema and she is my witness. So I got intouch, wrote a song and got them to dance in the video.”
However, this claim contradicts their manager, Daudi Kavuma’s who told the media moons ago that they shot the video using a phone camera in a single take and later showed it to Kenzo who was impressed and chose to appear in it.
That said though, some critics have argued that Kenzo has the Ghetto Kids to thank for his runaway success in music. That at the time he met the dancers, his career had stalled, with no dreams of BET Awards, sharing stages and collaborating with all the artistes he has since worked with. His lyrical content always lacked like it did in Sitya Loss but the kids carried on the whole song singlehandedly to the world, they said.
In June 2015, Kenzo won the Viewer’s Choice Best International Artist award at the 2015 BET Awards becoming the first Ugandan artiste to do so. He beat off competition from South Africa’s Cassper Nyovest, Ghana’s Mz Vee, UK’s George The Poet, MIC Lowry, and Novelist.
At the time, the Sitya Loss video was 15 months old with over 7 million views on YouTube and a local favourite.
Later, global superstars picked interest in the song and shared videos dancing to it. A petition was launched to have American TV host Ellen DeGeneres host them on her show. However, as much as they hit the number of signatures needed – 1,000, Ellen never got to host them but their brand had already taken on a life of its own. Because of the Sitya Loss video, Kenzo was able to tour several African countries – Cameroon, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal – and fill up stadiums.
The kids got to feature on Moroccan-American rapper, French Montana’s Unforgettable in 2017, and danced with him on the BET Awards stage that same year. They also appeared on the cover of American fashion and lifestyle publication, Vogue Magazine. Chris Brown sought their services for his song Back to Love in 2019.
So, who unlocked whose legend? If the kids didn’t dance in the Sitya Loss video, would Kenzo have gone this far? And if the kids didn’t dance in the video, would they have become a global dance sensation?
