Dokta Brain Doorkey has opened up about the creative thinking behind some of his music, arguing that not every song is necessarily designed to immediately connect with the average listener.
According to the songwriter, some artists package their lyrics and ideas in ways that require a deeper understanding of songwriting and creativity to fully appreciate.
Dokta Brain said such music can sometimes resonate more strongly with fellow artists and other people who understand the craft behind the work, even when it does not generate immediate mainstream numbers.
He pointed to his own song “Street Culture” as an example.
The songwriter said the track performed well on streaming platforms but did not achieve the YouTube numbers he expected, which he attributed to many Ugandans not fully understanding the song.
“I wrote it because it was to be loved more by artists or people who are talented. I over packaged it like a will.”
Dokta Brain also revealed that he has previously written songs with the intention of selling them to other artists, only to eventually release them himself when the intended buyers did not take them on.
One example was “Nkuwulila,” a collaboration featuring Kataleya and Kandle.
According to Dokta Brain, the song was initially intended for sale, but several artists he approached were too busy to take on the project.
“Some of them didn’t understand it. So I took it and in three weeks it had about 6k views on YouTube.”
The initial response left him disappointed enough to make the music video private.
But the song had already started developing an audience away from the official video.
Dokta Brain said one listener screen-recorded the song and created a lyrics video, while another person created a dance challenge around it.
That organic response eventually changed the situation.
“The next day I removed the video from private and I woke up to about 100k views.”
The experience gave Dokta Brain an unexpected reminder that immediate numbers do not always tell the full story of how audiences are receiving a song.
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For the songwriter, the journey of “Nkuwulila” also illustrates how music can find its audience in unexpected ways—even after its creator has already written it off.