By Alfred Byenkya
Wipolo hitmaker Pastor George Okudi has trashed all the Born in Africa song re-makes, saying the artistes used autotune.
Autotune is a piece of software that adjusts notes that a person sings (or that an instrument plays) to fit into the scale of a song, essentially correcting the notes to fit the song. So if you have a song in the key of C major, you can adjust the singer’s notes to match only the notes in C major.
Speaking from Washington DC to various US-based YouTubers, Okudi said the generation that started music in early 2000s is still better than the artistes of this generation.
“This generation doesn’t have talent like the generation of the early 2000s. No artiste of this generation can compete with me musically. I can play all music instruments both traditional and modern because I am naturally a gift musician who can sing well whether there’s autotune or not,” he said.
Okudi said he still a big artiste in Uganda because the Kora Award he won in 2003 is equivalent to the Grammy Awards of today.
“I was voted East Africa Best Musician in the 2003 in Kora Awards. I beat Jose Chameleone, Bebe Cool and other artistes to win this award yet my songs that made me win the award were made with traditional instruments, a sign that I really had natural talent because I can play most of the traditional music instruments,” he said.
On the comparisons between Eddy Kenzo and the late Philly Bongole Lutaaya, Okudi said those that are championing this debate are uninformed about music because the two artistes are different.
“Philly Bongole Lutaaya is one of the most talented artistes Uganda has ever had. The name Bongole was given to him by Congolese because of his exceptional music talent,” Okudi revealed.
He warned artistes to stop the habit of buying YouTube views and Facebook likes because views and likes are not benchmarks for analysing songs that are performing well on the world market.
Besides Kenzo, Bruno K also remade Born in Africa.
