Remember the early 2000s dancehall-reggaeton hit Musege by Ugandan singer Ras Dee?
The singer finally opened up about the bizarre real-life incident that inspired the song, revealing how a humiliating slap at Lido Beach turned into one of his memorable musical hits.
Ras Dee, who has since stepped away from active music, disclosed that the song was born out of a bitter encounter at the beach when he was still an upcoming musician struggling to make a name for himself.
According to the singer, musicians were frequently featured in newspapers at the time, and he had promised his baby mama that he would one day get his photograph published in the press.
However, he was still performing karaoke at music bars and had no hit song to his name.
“I had a baby mama and had promised her that one time I would get a photo moment in the newspapers.”
He explained that the incident happened at Lido Beach, where a prominent Rastafarian figure reportedly asked him to call over a beautiful woman.
Ras Dee approached the woman and informed her who wanted to speak to her, but she allegedly declined the request the rasta was making to her.
The singer believes the man had intended to feature the woman in a video shoot because of her smart appearance.
However, things quickly took an unexpected turn when the man returned and began questioning Ras Dee about whether every woman at the beach belonged to him.
The situation escalated, and the upcoming singer was chased away. As he turned around and noticed cameras pointed in their direction, he thought he had finally landed his long-awaited newspaper moment and began posing for the cameras.
Instead, he received a slap he says he will never forget.
“When he slapped me, I got lyrics out of the incident, humming that when a babe declines you, you call her a ‘Musege’. I had a phone and recorded the lyrics since I didn’t want them to evaporate from my head.”
Rather than letting the embarrassing encounter go to waste, Ras Dee decided to turn it into music.
He initially wanted to record a song attacking the rasta who had slapped him, but financial constraints stood in his way because recording in Kampala studios was expensive at the time.
His breakthrough came after travelling to Mbarara, where he met Don Balaam, the musician known for the hit Sirikyusa.
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Ras Dee said Balaam advised him to drop the parts that directly insulted the man and instead concentrate on the central idea behind the song.
He took the advice, and the rest became music history.
Beyond the story behind Musege, Ras Dee also revealed that he has plenty of unreleased music that audiences have yet to embrace.
The singer now leads a quieter life, working at a shop dealing in mobile phones and spare parts as he keeps a low profile away from the music industry’s limelight.
“Nze nadda mu kutunda masimu” Ras Dee eyayimba MUSEGE ayogedde ku wa gyabulidde#DailySoup pic.twitter.com/VK7rwtKQwn
— SPARK TV (@sparktvuganda) October 22, 2026
