Rarely does a Gospel artiste take to the public avenues to lambast and call out his/her colleague for musical impropriety and/or copyright infringement. But as we have seen,that has already happened.
The nation was plunged into some musical shock late Sunday evening (April 5th) when Bahati,one of Kenya’s most sensational Gospel artistes took to Facebook to rip his contemporary Willy Paul.
Its a Facebook post that was read and re-read by thousands upon thousands,shared by thousands and commented on by close to 10,000 people. Boy,that’s monumental.
In the post,the normally demure Bahati let loose his canines and shredded his usually controversial counterpart for stealing his music,his shine and also for adopting a cold attitude towards him.
The beef uglily played out in public. And Kenya has not seen such a stupendous musical mess before…
What shocked many was the fact that,this was not a Prezzo/Redsan mess. Or a Prezzo/Jaguar,Prezzo/Bamboo,Kalighraph/Octopizzo or Chiwawa/Abass thing.
No,it involved Bahati and Willy Paul. Two of Kenya’s brightest and most spectacular,most prolific, most decorated and most visible GOSPEL artistes. Both of whom,too,have won the coveted Groove for MALE ARTISTE OF THE YEAR. And both of whom,too,do what I’d call ‘Bongo Gospel’.
Honestly, we knew that there was some serious tension between these two superstars but we never thought that things were this ugly. And worse still,we never expected, even in a thousand years,that the politer one between the two(Bahati) would one day EXPLODE on the internet and,unbridled,blast his colleague in the unparalleled manner he did Sunday evening.
Question remains; Why would two post-teen Gospel whiz kids chose the internet as the medium to settle their Church scores!!?
I mean,like I said,we are talking Bahati and Willy Paul here. Not Chiwawa and Kleptomaniax.
Secular artistes are allowed to blast each other anytime they wish,anyhow they wish and from whatever angle they wish. But Gospel artistes?? Public beefing? How now!!?
Bahati is in his early twenties…if not 19. Willy Paul,too, is a kid as well. Obviously,these are young men who MUST have spiritual guardians and mentors and handlers who should handle them with care, show them the way,guide them correctly, teach them how to handle their fame and fortunes,lead them in the paths of righteousness,correct them and scold them whenever they are wrong. But these people have TOTALLY refused to do their jobs…Leaving Bahati and Willy Paul to childishly sort out their own teenage mess. In public.
I DO NOT BLAME Bahati or Willy Paul. They’re young, spiritual rookies,anyway. These are the people I BLAME for all this madness.

1. SYSTEM UNIT/DJ MO
DJ MO is the popular DJ who hosts the long running NTV Gospel show,Crossover 101. He’s also married to secular-turned-gospel artiste Size 8. Now,in Kenya’s Gospel industry, one thing is very common; cartels. And one such cartel is the DJ MO-led Gospel music outfit SYSTEM UNIT. System Unit is some sort of umbrella that encompasses gospel artistes, deejays and dancers all of whom do school tours all year long and do shows as a team round the clock. Some of the artistes in System Unit are DK Kwenye Beat,Size 8,Hope Kid,Benachi,Mr Seed,Hey Z and now Willy Paul and Bahati. And some of the DJs in System Unit include Dj Tabz,Dj Terots and the Founder Dj Mo. Hypeman MC Njugush is also the official System Unit MC. System Unit is a family. A tightly-knit family that almost always is always together. You will find them all doing all concerts together,travelling together, performing together and hanging out together. All the time. Dj Mo is the Father of System Unit in which Willy Paul and Bahati belongs. Infact,Bahati calls Dj Mo “Dad”. Well,if that’s the case,did Dj Mo see all this Bahati/Willy Paul beef simmering? He must have witnessed them fight behind the curtains. He must have known that things weren’t right. He must know more than we do. What did he do to control the situation? And nip the beef in the bud? Was he ever concerned about their welfare? Or was he simply after their names to milk them and expand his empire? Did he ever sit them down to talk? Did he play his “Daddy” duties right!? Well,if he did,this nonsense would NOT have reached the public. If he did……

2. MUSIC PRODUCERS
As an embittered Bahati pointed out in his lengthy post,Willy Paul would sneak around studios to steal Bahati’s unreleased material and pass it off as his own. Clearly,Willy Paul is not some sort of superpower. To access unreleased Bahati music,he must be working in evil cahoots with evil producers. Bahati named some of these wicked, unscrupulous producers; Teddy B and Tim of Still Alive Studios. Why would these producers allow Willy Paul to shamelessly steal Bahati’s content? Why would they help him re-record the material? Why didn’t they raise the alarm the moment they realized that Willy Paul had snuck into their studios and stolen creative materials? They all either remained mum to cover Willy Paul. Or worked hand-in-hand with him to frustrate and exasperate Bahati. Or better still,they may all have received quite a heavy paycheck from Willy Paul. And told to keep the whole thing hush-hush. I’m not saying they did it. It’s just hypothesis. Either way,the producers are heavily a part of the problem. And they are to blame. Forever.

3. GOSPEL DJS
Kenyan Gospel DJs also fall here. These are the people who popularize gospel music,they’re the people who hear and access new unreleased music first in the whole country,they’re the people who create the likes of Bahati and Willy Paul. They’re pretty much the gods of the industry. The lords who DECIDE what gets played and what doesn’t. They decide what song becomes a hit. And what song becomes a flop. They’re all-powerful. But why did these DJs still play music that was clearly stolen? Why did they NOT ban Willy Paul’s music and demand better from him? By continuously playing his stolen music,and putting it under unprecedented rotation, didn’t these DJs fuel Willy’s thieving habits? And spur him to steal more? And continue recording controvertible material? I’ll tell You why they played Willy’s insincere music; They played it because they deemed it hot. And because a hot Dj plays the hottest music. Asking a Gospel DJ NOT to play Willy Paul’s music is like asking a random Kenyan DJ not to play a Davido song. Or Wizkid. Never gonna happen. These DJs encouraged Willy Paul by continuously according his unoriginal music massive airplay. No DJ ever said “No” to Willy Paul. And that’s how the demon was groomed. And fed. See the madness now…

4. CHURCH PASTORS/LEADERS
Does Bahati go to Church? Does Willy Paul go to church? If yes,who are their pastors? Who are those spiritual authorities under whose jurisdiction and guidance Bahati and Willy Paul fall? What are these Church leaders’ roles in the lives of Bahati and Willy Paul? Before this beef boiled over into the public in the nasty manner it did,were these pastors aware of the situation? Did these spiritual fathers know that Willy Paul had been shortchanging Bahati for years now? What did they do about it? Did they ever sit these artistes down for a tête-a-tete? For this beef to play out so publicly, for Bahati to,exasperated, chose to attack Willy Paul in public,as his last resort, it only shows that someone somewhere slept on their job. Bahati’s youth pastor MUST be answerable. So is Willy Paul’s. And if these Men of God actually DID try and resolve these issues before they blew up,why didn’t Bahati and Willy Paul listen to them? Either they did a shoddy guidance and counseling job. Or they were too smitten by these two superstars’ celebrity status to firmly and uncompromisingly come down hard on them. And successfully command them to end the madness. Privately.
A number of shocked Gospel artists and players have now come out to strongly condemn the Bahati/Willy public beef. And to call for sobriety…
They are,just like us,alarmed that this whole thing would get so ugly. And go so public. No one saw it coming. Not the least fellow gospel artists.
Before we try to understand why Bahati decided to go public. Or why Willy Paul has become such a persona non grata,we must first forgive them.
And lay the blame on the abovementioned people. They’re the REASON this is happening. Because they’re the people who steer,chaperon,control,manage and guide the careers of these two Gospel wonder kids.
They’re to blame because this is NOT a secular industry thing. But a Jesus thing.
Unfortunate.