Diamond Platnumz is the biggest star in East Africa and arguably, it can be said he is the biggest star in Central and Southern Africa too. Ali Kiba, on the other hand, is one of the biggest Tanzanian artists. Spot the difference.
When Diamond was first starting out, back when he was singing and dancing on a rubbish heap, he wasn’t even a blip on the entertainment radar. Ali Kiba, on the other hand, was already an established artist and was one of the most sought after Tanzanian Bongo stars. Back then, Ali Kiba was already headlining shows and his songs were some of the biggest when compared to his contemporaries at the time such as Matonya.
Chibu Dangote pulled himself up by his bootstraps and elevated his game to where he too began to score a few hits, the earliest of which was Mbagala.
From here on out, there was no looking back as he began to refine his craft and the science of scoring hits. Ali Kiba for his part begun to slow down at some point once he had signed a major recording deal. From what most African artists have complained about when it comes to working with major American/ international record labels is that they lack an understanding of the African music scene. You see, most successful artists and producers in Africa have an almost visceral and intuitive understanding of how their industry works and none has bothered to document the formulas they use so when foreigners come into the market, they are stuck using blueprints that worked in foreign markets.
This is why artists they sign suffer a decline in popularity as they have to release music as stipulated by the contracts.
Diamond Platnumz then went on to team up with some investors and a management team that gave rise to Wasafi Classics Baby Records -yeah, that is the full name of WCB Records- and from there he had an entire team pushing towards the singular goal of his success.
Diamond Platnumz soon became the complete package expected of an A-list celebrity. He had the musical talent and hits to back it up, he had the content from his social life with juicy gossip often finding its way into tabloids and gossip rags, he had the crazy family life but most importantly, he had the machinery to popularize his content and brand.
He had the marketing team, the distribution team and the management team set in place so all he had to do was focus on his talents and the hits.
By the time Ali Kiba had roused from his slumber like Rip van Winkle, Diamond Platnumz had not just caught up to him, he had surpassed him. That explains why the explanation of their beef being about a song and verses getting dropped is a load of crock. This beef is founded on envy.
And King Kiba as his fans call him has been left scrambling to catch up with Diamond who went on to sign artists to his record label and these unknown elements went on to become Harmonize, Rayvanny, Queen Darleen, Mbosso and now Chuchu. These acts went on to become just as big if not bigger in Harmonize’s case than Ali Kiba himself. Now that King Music has been launched by Kiba, he is competing with Harmonize who has since left WCB and gone on to set up Konde Music Worldwide.
For his part, Chibu D is focussed on his radio and TV stations, Wasafi FM and Wasafi TV which have caused market disruption in Tanzania. While Ali Kiba is performing in Kenya and Tanzania, Diamond Platnumz is selling out shoes in Guinea Bissau and Congo. Diamond even tried to get Ali Kiba to bury the beef by having him perform at his festival, Wasafi Festival and Ali Kiba retorted with a scathing IG post calling out Mondi for lying about his scheduled performance.
So you tell me, who won this beef.
