If you remember the iconic hip hop group Kalamashaka, then it shall come as no surprise to you that Ken Ring was the brains behind pioneering the team. The Swedish producer, who is also a seasoned rapper, for some time now has been having a push and pull with Johnny vigeti, one member of K Shaka, which resulted in him coming clean and explaining his side of the story.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Ken Ring explained their journey and how he flew in from Sweden and worked with the Kalamashaka Trio, how they worked together, and narrated their epic fallout.
"First of all, I am not a manager or a PR man or a booking agent. I am a rapper and a producer, my work is straight studio things. Now when it comes to Johnny and K Shaka this is the true story. Everything else is just talks and lies," he posted.
The two factions met in 2001 when Kalamashaka had been invited to a Swedish TV Station, where they later went to the studio and recorded a number of hits, among them Fanya Mambo and KKK, among others.
Fast forward to 2008, Ken Ring flew into the country where he set base and took Johnny under his tutelage, although things never went as per the plan.
"Addiction got worse and I said, he really need to get clean. From rehab to rehab and back to the streets. I said to myself man, what should I do? I decided to take him to a friend's place in Gambia because drugs are not a common occurrence there," he said.
This journey took almost two years, and he alleges that he paid for everything, but once Johnny was out, he relapsed again. This saw Ken take Vigeti to Tanzania, but the same kept happening.
"I booked the biggest studio there, Wanene Studios, flew in Tommy Tee a producer from Norway again all of my expense. We came there, and then to my surprise he relapsed again!?!! He actually only did two verses in two weeks, imagine?" he disappointedly narrated.
This led to people formulating stories that Ken was allegedly taking advantage of Vigeti, something he says was never his doing. "Me and Johnny had a friendship in another level, and we still have, cause I love him to death. But now people started to talk smack about me, like I was wrong for him, that I was trying to get a career on his name. But what people didn't know is that me, in Sweden I had a legendary career," he says.
Ken Ring believes it's time he called a spade a spade, having spent a fortune totaling over six million with nothing in return.
"I had now spent 6Million shillings and gained 0 back, I had put my family, my life and my money to the side just to try and help one of my best friends ever. It's a shame that this dream of ours is gone cause I know me and him could of made the best album ever made in history of all east Africa, and that could have saved my brother.
It's time for me to take a step back from all this, I am happy of what we achieved and I will always pray for Johnny and his family. Now it's sorry that the people and so called friends around you is always the ones that will bring you down. You know who you are... But I will always pray for him and we can NEVER be enemies. Our bond goes beyond that," he says.
He further noted that the two were a family whose bond wasn't going to beak easily but, "No one will ever come between me and Johnny, the only thing you guys are doing by dissing me is destroying Johnny's career and life, not mine."
