Hip-Hop ariste Sugar gets a surprise proposal from boyfriend Brian Okemo after 7 years

By Snyder Lukalia | 8yrs ago | 4 min read

Recently engaged Sugar with hubby to be Brian Okemo.

The much anticipated Hip-hop Goes Uptown concert had nothing to do with wedding rings. Who would have thought this would turn into a romantic affair? I mean, hip-hop has never been anything near romance in its depiction. So to Sugar, whose 2011 Say Yeah single thrust her into public limelight, this was just another gig, another concert she would attend alongside her producer boyfriend and lover of seven years, Brian Okemo.

Hip-hop heads Abbas Kubbaf and his one-time showbiz rival Chiwawa were here for the night. But what on earth would Avril, Amani, Styles and A-Star, among other Phoenix outsiders, be doing here? As fate would have it, Sugar had just taken the stage to do her thing when the shocker came. The music stopped, and there was Brian, stepping forward.

Gently and confidently, he went down on one knee and posed the four magic words: Will you marry me? You read it all from Pulse. After the surprise proposal, Sugar who is now more than smitten, would like to share her love story with the world. Their seven-year-old relationship started at Abbas’s and now ex-wife Baby G’s wedding after-party. “I was a bridesmaid and the after-party was at Crooked Q. There was a bit of confusion, as happens at every wedding and the car that was to take me home left,” a rather shy Sugar recalls. In this dilemma, Brian Okemo the current Phoenix CEO, on seeing a damsel in distress, came to check on her and offer a solution. “We had a short conversation during the wedding, but this time we ended up having such a long conversation that we did not realise that by the time we were taking a breath, it was almost dawn,” Sugar remarks as she recalls their first romantic moments. “Brian was the gentle man. He dropped me home. It was at this point that we exchanged contacts,” Sugar goes on. The two music makers, Sugar being a hip-hop artiste and Brian being a producer, started out as friends, business partners and finally ended up in a loving relationship. Now, the beauty reveals that Brian Okemo is part of the reason she delved into music. “He believed in me and helped me develop my talent,” says Sugar.

Within no time, Brian doubled up as her mentor and manager, getting for her shows and helping her perfect her singing and rap technique by signing her as one of the artistes at Phoenix Records. Still she never saw this Ebony Lounge proposal day coming.

In fact, it was Brian’s birthday and she had planned to pull a surprise on him instead; all set with a gift for him which she would present to him right after her performance. Little did she know that Brian had better plans.

Right in the middle of her performance, the system crushed and a polite Sugar gave the microphone to the DJ while thinking of another way to get Brian off guard with his birthday gift. “Brian took the microphone and started giving a vote of thanks, which I didn’t think so much of until he went down on one knee. I said yes, with no shred of doubt in mind, he is the man I want to spend the rest of my life with,” Sugar declares. The soft-spoken Sugar reveals that she loves her man because he is her best friend. “I can tell him anything and he will try to understand before judging me. I love him because he is loyal, faithful, funny, my ride-or-die dude and he loves me for me,” she charmingly adds. Sugar agrees that what attracts her more to Brian is that he is a God-fearing man. They pray together and he completes her. Brian is not mean when it comes to spending money on his queen, as he likes to refer to her. Her engagement ring was custom made; it has an infinity sign that also doubles up as an ‘S’ for Sugar. The ring, he reveals, cost more than 2,000 dollars (Sh192,000).

It is white gold with diamonds. The couple says the wedding budget is currently at Sh2 million and they plan to go all out on it. They promise their guests a one-of-a-kind wedding ceremony with food from a five star hotel; invite only of course. The couple looks forward to a large family with rumours floating around that they might have started on that already. “Brian is very good with children, he wants a football team and so do I,” Sugar jokes.