Mdundo Awards: Timmy T’ Dat beats rappers among them E-sir to take home hip-hop crown

 Most music award shows are glamorous. They are supposed to be. So what happens when the surprises are more that the predicted outcomes? MISS RUBY analyses the recently held Mdundo Awards giving her personal account and opinion

The recently held Mdundo Awards have been the talk of town, and not because of all the good reasons. It is because they elevated Timmy T-Dat, hauling him to the pinnacle of ‘showbiz hip-hop king’.

So on this night, Timmy T-Dat walks home with the Most Downloaded Hip-Hop artiste accolade for the year 2016.

The category had ‘real’ hip-hop artistes such as Khaligraph, Octopizzo and King Kaka. As if to add salt in to injury, they also had the late E-Sir nominated in the same category. How was E-Sir – or for that matter his over 10-year-old song supposed to compete?

That means, well the late E-Sir, this showbiz genius who became the first artiste to bring a revolution in the music industry with his rap songs lost the award to T-Dat.

Instead of giving E-Sir an honorary award for the impact he had on the music scene and his rhymes inspiring artistes to date, they insisted on having him as a nominee. Have you seen Tupac or Biggie battle it out for Best Male Hip-Hop Artiste at any award show? Only in Kenya...

The moment Mdundo decided to host this show, they had their categories ready and we want to believe, they took time to vet the nominees and approve (or disapprove) them. This is not just a slip; this was intentional.

Mind you, we are not saying that any specific hip-hop artiste who was nominated in that category should have won but if either Khaligraph, Octopizzo or King Kaka had a number of downloads, no matter the figure, they should have been awarded because they are true hip-hop artistes.

When asked how he felt about winning the award, T-Dat said that he hadn’t really been expecting it but at the same time, he was expecting it because he had been working hard to give the fans good music, calling it a fair award.

On winning the award, Timmy also got congratulated by his label, Kaka Empire, even after King Kaka himself lost to him. Jemedari, also a hip-hop artiste and the MC for the night didn’t say a word about the award.

In our opinion, a nominees list is supposed to be a true representation of actual happenings on the ground. It’s supposed to be a reflection of who’s really popping and who’s doing a good job while at it.

No disrespect to T-Dat, we’re sure he works hard, has a huge following and most of his songs are hits but to nominate him in a hip-hop category with others like The Kansoul, Frasha and Kristoff just shows the level of ignorance of the panel behind the award show.

The truth is, hip-hop and Kapuka are not the same thing and should be treated as such.