Musician and sound engineer Viboyo has pulled back the curtain on the making of Uganda’s memorable all-star hit “Mr. DJ,” revealing that the song went through plenty of drama before becoming a major entertainment moment.
According to Viboyo, the project originally brought together DJ Shiru and GoodLyfe’s Mowzey Radio. But after the two sides fell out, Radio reportedly decided to continue with the song without DJ Shiru.
Viboyo, who was among the artists contributing to the project, said numerous musicians recorded verses, but several contributions eventually failed to make the final cut.
As for why his own verse survived, Viboyo had a simple — and humorous — explanation.
“I was too good to be cut from the project. But there were some two Congolese guys, Diamond Oscar and so many others who failed to make the cut.”
He explained that the changes were not simply about reducing the number of artists. According to Viboyo, GoodLyfe manager Jeff Kiwa also played a role in deciding which verses stayed.
“We recorded and recorded, then Jeff Kiwa was like some verses wouldn’t give life to the song, and they were ditched.”
Despite the behind-the-scenes reshuffling, Viboyo said the finished track immediately caught attention when he took it to Radio Sanyu.
He recalled delivering the song to his friend Kagwa, who was then the station’s programmes director. According to Viboyo, the song was put on air almost immediately after Kagwa heard it.
“I remember I took the song to Radio Sanyu and my guy Kagwa, he was the programmes director, but as soon as he listened to the song, there and then it went straight on air. I had never seen anything like that.”
But getting the song recorded and played was only part of the battle.
Viboyo said the team later faced another logistical headache while working on the music video, particularly when it came to collecting contributions from the artists involved.
“Then drama came of collecting 70k video contributions from artists. That was a hustle too.”
From an original collaboration involving DJ Shiru and Radio to discarded verses, financial contributions and an unexpectedly fast radio debut, Viboyo’s recollection paints a picture of a hit record that was anything but straightforward behind the scenes.
Yet despite all the disagreements and logistical challenges, “Mr. DJ” made it through the process and became one of the memorable collaborative projects associated with Uganda’s music scene.
The story behind the song, it turns out, had almost as many twists as the track had voices.