By Olanike Fagbule
In October 2009, two of Africa’s most respected urbane music channels MTV and Channel O took us all on an interesting slant: at the second edition of the MAMAs in Nairobi, Kenya’s David Mathenge popularly known as Nameless was announced the Best Male act.
Two weeks later, Nigeria’s King of RNB Darey was named the Best Male and Best RNB act at the Channel O awards.
And now, four months after, Channel O is announcing that “It is Naija versus Kenya’s finest this Friday 19th at 20:30 exclusive to the big O” – pitching Kenya’s leading act Nameless with Nigeria’s Darey.
Channel O’s playlist on Friday will be dominated by videos from Darey and Nameless.
”They are two smooth brothas from different ends of the earth who bring chills to hordes of women. What brings them together, apart from their dashing good looks, is their shared love of R&B music but who is the African king of R&B?”, a post on the Channel O website reads.
It remains uncertain if viewers’ vote will be considered in determining who comes tops, or if the ‘battle’ is just for fun; ending only with the channel playing both acts’ videos and leaving audiences across Africa to make up their minds.
But one thing is for sure, these young men although from two different worlds are strongholds in the R&B game, and have distinguished themselves in a village where pop music is fast becoming the lingua franca…
2 comments
its really dumb when people compare artistes like who’s better 2pac or biggie, jay-z/nas, mode9/ruggedman nw dare/nameless. i think channel o shld seek other ways of competing wit mtv instead of sparkin an unnecessary kenya/naija rivalry cos its nt healthy for our soaring popularity in kenya at d moment. we dont need it! we luv them both!
I watched the show today on channel O. You can't compare Darey with Nameless. Darey is 100 times better than Nameless. Singing, production and videos, darey is better. Better compare Darey and Banky W for Africa's best R&B art in Africa.