My beef with Senderi was a hoax - Kayitare Wayitare

Afrobeat singer Kayitare Wayitare Ddembe has claimed he has no beef with fellow artiste Eric Senderi, instead telling The New Times he was involved in making up the lie as a ploy to help resurrect his music career. The erstwhile popular artiste, who is currently trying to revive his career, now claims that the lie was a result of a mutual understanding with Senderi since the two allegedly reckoned it would help him attract media attention and help promote his upcoming album, while publicity was also healthy for his Afrobeat counterpart. “In the music industry, sometimes such things are made up to spice up business and gain some desired attention,” Kayitare Wayitare said, adding that today’s world picks interest in scandalous news only. He said good acts hardly attract as much public attention as negative ones. “Between me and Senderi, we all know that the whole fight thing is not real. We have no problems between us at all,” he told The New Times. Stories of the two bickering for superiority and recognition have made rounds on particularly local entertainment websites with Kayitare Wayitare alleging he will never recognise Senderi as the pioneer of Afrobeat in Rwanda. Kayitare Wayitare insists he and Senderi had agreed to touch off the tiff, with an understanding that the publicity could also propel back into annual Primus Guma Guma Super Star competition. However, speaking to The New Times, Senderi sounded rather serious about the alleged feud with Kayitare Wayitare and denied the two were making up anything together. Senderi, ‘International Hit from Harvard’ as he calls himself, claims that Wayitare’s era passed and that he has been left behind by Rwandan music. He accuses him of concocting lies to earn publicity and says he wanted Kayitare Wayitare to withdraw the negative comments he publicly made about him and apologise. Senderi in a graduation gown, during his performance at University of Rwanda last year.(File) “Kayitare and I have our differences and he knows them. We have not reconciled yet. We still maintain certain disagreements and these will remain until he comes out and takes responsibility for his remarks,” Senderi said. A few weeks back, a local news website published Wayitare’s picture when the artiste was reportedly kneeling before the media and fellow artistes, asking for their support as he bids to successfully get back on the music scene. But he reportedly said Senderi was not among those whose support he needed. The ‘Tujenge Africa’ star also stated that his comeback threatened the likes of Senderi, “who have been pretending to be the pioneers of Afrobeat” in Rwanda. The public ‘feud’ did not go down well with music fans, who advised the two to drop their ‘differences’ and work together instead. For observers, the two seem to be engaged in a battle of egos and superiority. At the moment it is not clear to know who is fooling who, but as it is, it seems they are getting the publicity they both wanted. Time will tell whether the beef is real or not. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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My beef with Senderi was a hoax - Kayitare Wayitare