Introduction
Karuga Kimani, popularly known as KRG The Don, is a Kenyan dancehall artist and has described himself as one of the richest musicians in Kenya. Redsan born Swabir Mohamend is a Kenyan reggae and ragga artist born on the 1st of May 1981. These two are considered by many as flag bearers of Kenya in the genre of dancehall music not only in Africa but the world.
Before they met – according to KRG – Redsan was a figure in dancehall whom he was looking up to. In the process the urge of working together developed because KRG and his team believed that Redsan was the right person to project him to success and show him around in the global dancehall genre of music. The arrangement were put in place and in no time Redsan and KRG met for the first time. After a brief conversation Redsan agreed to work with KRG on a track but at a cost. In an interview at Baze Radio, KRG confirmed that the cost of getting Redsan to be on his track was 500, 000 Kenya shillings. As per the agreement, KRG paid Redsan the agreed amount of money and they started the process of making a song.
KRG confirmed that they wrote two songs together but went on recording one. After mastering and mixing both parties immediately started the process of shooting the video and Cape Town, South Africa was the ideal location. As plans were underway, Redsan was also scheduled to attend MAMAs awards that were to take place in Johannesburg, South Africa. KRG remanences that he paid 1 million Kenyan shillings for logistics and location (s) down payment. After the MAMA awards Redsan came back to Kenya and he wanted KRG to reimburse him the expenses of the trip he went on while attending the awards ceremony. To KRG this was not part of the plan as Redsan’s first visit was entirely another business and that was the beginning of their fall out.
The war of words begun to an extent of almost breaking into a physical fight on several occasions. After discussions through friends, KRG and Redsan all agreed to continue with the process of shooting the video but this time round they opted to do the shooting in Dubai. In Dubai again plans changed as the went on agreeing on shooting four music videos – one for their song “Get with It”, one for KRG’s other song and two videos for Redsan – all under KRG’s budget. During the whole process disagreements – on the prompts to be used in the video, location plus equipment – again started and went on through the whole shoot.
On returning back to Kenya, with the collabo ready, KRG reached out to Amina Abdi the host of The Trend show at NTV. To KRG this was the right platform of launching himself as an artist after being behind the scenes helping his signee to grow their careers. The day of the interview was set as KRG continued to narrate and since in the song he had featured Redsan, it was in all order that they attend the interview together. During the interview Redsan was to be interviewed first then he will introduce KRG to the world as a solo artist – this was per the initial plan and agreement – but after Redsan’s interview, he did not introduce KRG, instead Amina Abdi ended the show.
This was the biggest disrespect to KRG after all the expenses he had incurred in the process of putting together the song. At this point KRG felt betrayed by both Redsan, Amina and NTV, ever since then KRG and Redsan fell out completely and the little trust or friendship they had was all gone. To NTV and Amina, KRG swore never to bother them again looking for an interview.