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“Who is Khaligraph? Is he a rapper?” with sarcasm, Octopizzo, ‘Number Nane’s’ finest, slammed in his response as Pulse asked him what he thought about his fellow rapper’s album launch. That was a few months ago.
Almost a month after Khaligraph launched his I Run 254 project, Octopizzo hosted a major album launch in Nairobi saying that he wanted to teach local rappers what launching an album was all about. This came after Rabbit had launched his new album.
Octopizzo’s launch was major. Fans came to the KICC venue in their hundreds and the show was big. Many artistes supported him. He won that round. However, Khaligraph’s singles such as Shiro, You Got me Sexy, Mario and the Biashara remix were receiving more airplay play, enough to make Khaligraph lord it over Octopizzo.
That was after Khaligraph had gone public saying he was not about to forgive Octopizzo, whom he said he had no respect for, as he had been mocking him simply because he was jealous that his songs were receiving more airplay.
He said Octopizzo had no right to mock him about his English accent, while he (Octopizzo) had an issue communicating in it.
Khaligraph claimed that Octopizzo was feeling threatened since he (Khaligraph) had managed to steal the limelight from him, adding that after Rabbit, he was the most played hip-hop artiste... not Octopizzo. He went ahead to diss Octopizzo as someone whose success depended on his wife.
During concerts where the two were invited to perform, they wouldn’t see eye-to-eye. Their fans have for months engaged in a war of words in this battle of who owns the throne in Kenyan hip-hop.
Before then, cold war was seen to be brewing between top rappers Rabbit and Octopizzo – something Octopizzo always plays down. But unexpectedly, the three hip-hop arch-rivals met at Carnivore last weekend and had their first real face-to-face encounter.
It all started when Rabbit asked Khaligraph for a private talk during the celeb-studded weekend event.
The two engaged in a deep conversation and it was after a short while that Octopizzo joined them. “Is the beef over,” Pulse asked Khaligraph. “Well,” he responded with a chuckle. “This was for Janet Kanini’s sake. It was a call for unity.”
The thing is Octopizzo and I met at Sarakasi Dome last Saturday during Smallz Lethal’s album launch and there was a bit of a tension as everyone was expecting us to snub each other. However, Octopizzo came forth and greeted me and I thought, we are now mature and all cool. We had not spoken in a long time,” Khaligraph noted.
“Since then, things are cool. It is not like I am trying to be friends with anybody but the entire move is good for business. A collabo together... that would really depend on the situation,” he added.
Rabbit and Khaligraph have been working on some projects together and this week, they were recording a new video for a song Khaligraph has recorded with Kaka Empire’s new catch, Phy.
“Octopizzo has branded himself very well and that is something I like about him. We are from different backgrounds so everyone understands why our ideologies kind of clash,” Khaligraph concluded.
