Klear Kut is back: Uganda’s first commercially successful rap Group
Klear Kut is a five member Ugandan rap outfit consisting of Navio, Papito, Abba Lang and The Mith who rose to prominence in the early 2000s. They are known for songs like All I wanna know ft. Juliana Kanyomozi, Air UG, Murder of Crows/Mon Coeur and many others.
They were the first artists to be nominated in the Kora All Africa Music Awards back in 2002 for most promising African group and Revelation of the year categories. They did not bag the awards, however the following year ,they scooped best hip hop group at the inaugural Pearl of Africa Music (PAM) Awards.
The group split up with some members seeking to further their education ,while others went solo: Navio having a more successful solo career followed by The Mith and slightly JB. The other two members had been doing other things and made less musical appearances or were not getting any media attention being away from Uganda.
The last time we had hopes of a Klear Kut reunion was when the crew released “Let it Rain” (2016).
Recently, a video has made rounds on social media in which the group members are seen to be recording a song. A trusted source says the group is making a huge come back and this gives Ugandan hip hop a chance to hopefully boom again with the star air the most commercially successful rap group Uganda has ever heard!
A Quick dive into the milestones of the group:
Klear Kut teamed up with Dawoo & Damz (D&D) Productions to record the full-length album Mind, Body & Soul. The album was a success for the group with hits like “All I Wanna Know” featuring Juliana and “Superstar” featuring Bebe Cool. The singles topped the charts in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.
The video for “All I Wanna Know” pioneered modern video production in Uganda. It earned the group two nominations at the prestigious 2002 Kora All Africa Music Awards in the “Most Promising African Group” and “Revelation of the Year” categories. This also made them the first Ugandan group to be nominated at the KORAs. Klear Kut was also nominated at the 2003 Pearl of Africa Music Awards and won the award for “Best Hip Hop Group.”
It was also the first Hip Hop video to play on WBS’s Jam Agenda.
The group also released another album, K2, which features Bebe Cool, TID, Benon, Rania, E-Von & Poetic. The album featured the hit single “Mon Coeur/Murder of Crows” and its video was on heavy rotation on WBS as well as TV Africa back in the day. It topped the EATV Top 10 music video charts and later created new records by being the first Ugandan music video to be featured on MTV.
Klear Kut performed at several events including the Shaggy Boombastic Concert, Miss Uganda, Tevin Campbell New Year Concert, Sanyu Carnival in Uganda, Miss Kenya and Coca-Cola Race Day in Kenya, Bongo All-Stars in Tanzania, Sauti Za Busara in Zanzibar. They also performed at the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) alongside African greats such as Femi Kuti (Nigeria) and Habib Koite (Mali).
The group has endorsement as early on which are rare these day in hip hop from Coca-Cola, MTN, PSI Protector, BB Soda, Allied Bank, Celtel, Guinness, and Pepsi.
At the 2008 Kisima Music Awards Klear Kut was nominated for the Ugandan Video of the Year category for their video “Klear discussion”
Away from music they did AID’s awareness campaigns.
Klear Kut definitely also inspired a lot of the rappers who came after them from 2010 on wards and Flex D’Paper isone of those who also got mentorship from The Mith and Navio heavily talks about this on the NuveyLive Podcast.
Its great to see them back in studio. We hear they may be working on an album.
Let’s go down memory lane what are your favourite Klear Kut projects?
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