WEED: The Illegal Drug That Remains Glamour in Music

By Jacobs Odongo|

KAMPALA, Uganda- They glorify it in their songs. They wear shirts emblazoned with it. But if you thought our celebrated artistes are merely pulling pranks, then you are in another world. The shot-cut to witnessing the truth may not even require passports; just access the backstage where artistes prepare before mounting the stage and groping that coveted microphone to do their things

Yes, marijuana (hemps, pot or weed), cannabis, cocaine and others are illegal everywhere. Sadly, the same law has failed to apply in the world of artistes in East Africa.

Drug abuse or use was initially a secret thing, but musicians have made it a glamorous act. So, when Jamaican dancehall star, Elephant Man, stepped on stage during the Club Silk Street Jam and puffed weed before the fully packed audience, even police officers in attendance merely cheered him on. He was the star, right? But he was a Jamaican, so leaving out the likes of Marlon Asher (he of the Ganja Planter fame,) we would be better off serving East African Community or EAC, by dwelling deeper in the hides of our celebrated EAC artistes.

Jude Katende, an entertainment writer at the New Vision, a leading daily newspaper in Kampala, Uganda, says most of these artistes do drugs and make every effort to publicly glamorize it because they want to be controversial. Controversy sells artistes, that, we all know. And what better way to illustrate this than with singer Bobi Wine’s public confession in an exclusive interview with a writer from Uganda’s Monitor Newspaper in 2005.

Asked if he smokes weed, Bobi put up a straight face and bragged: “Not only do I smoke it, but I also grow it in the back yard of my house.” He said. Eye brows were raised, but only as far as the public could condemn his comments, not his habit!

But Emmanuel Ssejjengo, a music and theatre critic from Uganda has an opinion every artiste who does drugs will gloat over. “It’s not only in music where drugs are used and certainly, artists are not the only people who give justifications for using drugs,” he says. He cites examples of sportsmen, soldiers, homosexuals and patients suffering from some chronic diseases. While one would okay patients in that they do so upon a recommendation from a doctor, drugs have no business in sports and severe punishments are often meted out on culprits. May be, wrestling, but World Wrestling Entertainment is an entertainment and not sports.

But Ssejjengo, who has enjoyed a decade of fond relationship with most artistes in Uganda, stands his ground. “The difference is that artists, especially musicians, are more popular than other people,” he argues. He says there is always the explanation that what one sings does not always portray what he or she is. For example, using the persona of a president in a song does not make an artiste one.

The picture
Bar brawls and feuds among artistes have many a times been blamed on drug abuse rather than mere rivalry. I have seen Jose Chameleone and his nemesis Bobi Wine in public chatting away freely. Yet once they are in a club, feuds become their other identity.

Wine is a self-proclaimed president of the Uganja Republic (note that U-from Uganda and Ganja from weed) has taken his weed affection to another level. He has cars painted with marijuana. The ghetto president also has a minister for “Agriculture” charged with promoting the growing of marijuana.

Wine and his Fire Base crew aside, Peter Miles and his partner Menshan are notable big names. The press recently reported that Menshan was literally knocked off just before performance after over doing weed. He had to be carried home to recuperate. Miles had to warn him to “watch his levels” or stay away from stage.  

In Arusha, Jose Chameleone fell off the window of his hotel room from the third floor, breaking both legs. He claimed he had sleep-walked and jumped from the window. The incident, though, got mixed reactions from the public, most of who argued that Chameleone was on drug overdose.

Like Ssejjengo said, [with the exception of Wine] no artiste has come out in the open to say he or she does illegal drugs; it is not easy to extract a comment from active musicians. Sure enough, they can only confess later in their lives.

But what explains the use of weed and other drugs by musician? Okay, wrestlemanias do it because of the nature of their career. They have to use steroids to build their muscles and also other drugs to numb their bodies during their stage fights. What about musicians?

Joseph Batte, the first music critic in Uganda, has enjoyed a lifetime in the showbiz where he has pictured the behind-the-scenes. The veteran, who presents the history of music on Vision Voice Radio, says that most artistes are from the ghetto- people with the humblest of beginnings. Exposure to slum life is like exposure to crime life and of course, drugs thrive best in the ghetto, so it is natural for musicians with such backgrounds to do drugs.

However, those who come from well-off families are simply into it because of peer influence. “But the bigger reason for their learning and eventual reliance on drugs is the foreign influence,” Batte says. “Most young artistes look up to someone or some culture. The Jamaican street and Rastafarian culture that has for decades infused weed into life, coupled with a number of successful artistes, notably, the legendary Bob Marley, still moves the lifestyle of many musicians.”

Some musicians lack the confidence on stage and they tend to believe that drugs can get them just that. Besides, many of them still, have this opinion that when high on drugs, one can get on stage and perform to perfection longer than he or she would do when sober. So, for many upcoming artistes, the solution to stage fright is drugs.

Another notion (I dare say a false one again) is that drugs improve the voice. It is not uncommon to find a number of hippies, aka, a new crop of aspiring artistes in dingy places where they meet regularly to do weed with abandon—they are nurturing their voices, or so they believe.

The fallacy of drugs
Fallen South African reggae icon, Lucky Dube, neither smoked nor drunk, yet he churned out hit after hit and became an icon in the continent. He is still regarded as the best live stage performer the continent has ever had, never mind that he never needed the Dutch courage. He was one of the few musicians who could jump on stage and take his audience through four hours of nonstop electrifying performances. Many people (including myself) believed Dube relied on drugs. How could one man change voice like that? How could he sing for hours without his vocal chords giving way? I used to ask myself these questions. It only took his death for the truth about the man I admired to dawn on me. Dube, when asked if he did weed being a rastaman, said: “If being a rastaman means smoking weed and drinking alcohol or doing any kinds of illicit drugs, then I am not a rastaman, but if being one means promoting humanity and helping Jah’s people, then I am proudly a Rastafarian.” A big statement!

Born again artistes do not use drugs. Their voices do not betray them and when they are on stage doing their things, we see no signs of stage fright. Kirk Franklin is famous for his stomping performances and yet he does no drugs.

A look at the effects of using drugs for Dutch courage paints a rather sad picture. Shanks Vivi Dee was once a household name in Uganda. But he almost lost a whole career to drugs, and admits he was admitted to a mental hospital in the United Kingdom over the same.

Moments before South Africa’s Brenda Fassie collapsed in her brother’s arms, News24.com reports that she threw a cocaine pipe onto the kitchen floor of her home in Buccleuch on the morning of April 26, the day Fassie, 39, was admitted to Sunninghill Hospital where she died 13 days later.
 
Eminem stopped making music after his drug abuse spiraled out of control. The "We Made You" rapper decided to step out of the spotlight in 2005 in a bid to beat his addiction after an unsuccessful stint in rehab.

He said: “I wasn’t ready mentally. I wasn’t ready to give up the drugs. I didn’t really think I had a problem. Basically, I went in, and I came out. I relapsed, and I spent the next three years struggling with it. Also, at that time, I felt like I wanted to pull back because my drug problem had got so bad.”

“I felt like, 'Maybe if I take a break, maybe this will help. I started to get into the producer role more. I can still be out there with my music, but I don’t have to be in the spotlight anymore.”

(The writer is a features writer for New Vision Newspaper in Uganda).

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