Music Review (Down Memory Lane): Hitaji –Blu 3

Well, they have a comeback concert this month so we might as well look them up, eh? Hitaji dropped 17 years ago, if you will believe that.

Back then, Steve Jean was still writing and producing for Blu 3, so the song has his fingerprints all over it – the song’s arrangement, the groove, the instrumentation, everything. This was an era where every producer liked to be immediately recognisable, and Steve made sure you could see his work a mile away.

I never was a fan of Hitaji. At about that time, Swahili was flooding the pop music scene in Uganda as a result of East African TV and the fuss around Kenyan and Tanzanian music.  I found the Swahili craze somewhat annoying and felt like Hitaji was just another trend- based song so I loathed it.

Hitaji was popular, though, and it fit nicely in what was a fast growing discography for Blu 3. For me it represented a language fad as well as a phase of R&B where the genre was basically dying. Still it sold, which is excellent proof that music critics do not really influence musical trends.

At this point, it was obvious that Lillian Mbabazi was running point in the group.

Cindy and Jackie were so obviously the back up part of the act and I think it was about that time that I realised these two were not cut out to be the back up act to Lilian.

I might have been the first person to start thinking that group was going to break up – Cindy and Jackie were too singular as artistes to be comfortable in the shadows.

The one thing about Hitaji was it showcased how the distribution of parts worked within the group – Lillian on lead and Jackie and Cindy following up with their remaining verses while Lillian provided some neat ad libs. It was a formular that was repeated while the three were together.