Joseph Mayanja is a hip-hop and ragga musician from Uganda who is known by his stage name, Jose Chameleone, or just Chameleone. Chameleone’s musical style is a combination of Ugandan folk music, dancehall, central African rumba, zouk and ragga.

He started exploring discos to try his luck in music and, with encouragement from DJs with whom he easily established a rapport, he started singing to various sound tracks. When his mother discovered this, she likened him to a chameleon–camouflaging himself with books while doing exactly what he was advised against. It is from this incident that the 26-year-old Joseph Mayanja acquired the name Chameleone. In 1994, as a singing disco jockey, he sung at Pulsations and Missouri nightclubs. He then linked up with the management of Colline Hotel and was signed up as resident DJ getting the chance to work with then hot DJ Shanks Vivi Dee.

Chameleon started curtain-raising for big names like Lucky Dube and Buju Banton when each visited Uganda. Kalamashaka, then a prolific Kiswahili rap group, soon invited him to feature in their album in Kenya. Though he came to a new environment, he linked up with Kenyan producers and events organisers like Tedd Odongo Josiah and John Nyamu (the Miss World-Kenya director at the time). He was one of the artists who entertained guests at the 1999 Miss World-Kenya, the Mombasa annual carnival, and the Konyagi Spirit of Africa concert in Tanzania. When he met his girlfriend, Belgian Griet Onsea, they produced his first album, “Bageya”, in 1999 in Kenya. Though “Bageya” is predominantly a traditional Luganda folk music, Chameleon has since blended traditional folk and ragga in his subsequent releases. The album has been successful in Tanzania and Kenya despite being in Luganda. In 2001, Chameleon released his second album, “Mama Mia”, which got riotous reception all over East Africa. He says he did “Mama Mia” in Swahili to thank his fans in Kenya and Tanzania “for receiving “Bageya” well despite not knowing what the Luganda lyrics mean.”

In 2002, erroneously seen as one of Kenya’s top young musicians, Chameleon and Kenyan Red San were invited to curtain-raising performances during Shaggy’s Boombastic Kenya tour. The year saw him do three successive songs; “Njoo”, “Karibu”, “Dorotia”, and “The Golden Voice”. Early in the year Chameleon did yet another thunderous tour in Kenya promoting his songs “Bei Kali”, “Njoo”, “Karibu”, and” Dorotia” where he entertained revelers on the Valentine’s Eve at the plush Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi. On the Valentine’s Day he launched the album in Mombasa.

He believes it is his fusion of traditional style with modern ones that make his music so popular. While some people favour his not-so-slow ragga beat, others only listen to the Afro-beat. His choice of language is Kiswahili and his lyrics have made is songs legend. Chameleon addresses social issues with a unique truthfulness. “Mama Mia”, his first hit in Swahili, talks about unfaithful, opportunistic women who only stick with their family in good times and abandon them when poverty or other misfortune strikes. “Bei Kali” shades light on the problems faced by men who date materialistic, high-flying ‘expensive women’. “Jamila” sympathises with women who are mistreated, battered and divorced. Another thing that endears Chameleon to music lovers is that his songs have no offensive language—four letter words, cursing, etc—that characterize many rap artistes. Jose Chameleon himself says it is “a question of tackling each adversarial situation at a time with due seriousness.”

The hoarse-voiced singer has also started up a Child Right Campaign called ‘Mtoto Apewe.’ In August 2004, Chameleon held a concert dubbed “X-Mas in August” again in Gulu that was attended by people drawn from government, parliament, and private sector. Guest artistes included Kenya’s GidiGidi–MajiMaji, and German’s Wolfgang Niedikein. With this, and the acclaim he has received with increased air-play of his music on Ugandan radio stations, there is no doubt that the ‘Prophet’ has now taken his own homeland by storm and is riding high on the shoulders of his own people. But in spite of all these, Jose Chameleon says that his memorable moment still remains the Rwanda Peace Concert in Kigali in 1998. “At this historic concert I performed alongside South African diva, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, and PJ Powers for a host of distinguished guests.”

Awards and Nominations:

Nominations:

Chameleon was nominated as a finalist at the KORA All Africa Music Awards for his single, “Mama Mia” in 2003

Chameleon wass nominated in the Best African Act category in the MOBO awards in 2006

Awards:

“Bei Kali” won Contemporary Single, Male Artiste, Artist of the Year, and Song of the Year awards during the inaugural PAM awards in 2003

Best Video, Uganda and Best Song, for “Mama Rhoda”, at the Kisima Music Awards in Kenya

You can learn more about his llustrious career on his website.