Bebe Cool's sidekick Kleberson on life-changing phone call with Gagamel boss

In 2013, when Cool held Akamwako Concert at Kyadondo Rugby Grounds, Kleberson conceived an idea to sell merchandise.

He made samples, showed them to Cool and he bought all of them.

Cool told him to make more.

"... I came to Nasser before I started making T-Shirts, and I made five T-Shirts," he said in a recent interview.

"I found him in Nakulabye and he bought all of them.

"After buying them, he told me to make more 30 [tees]. That day I got Shs5 million from Bebe Cool. That 1 million changed my life... I started making more."

That same year, Cool and Goodlyfe battled it out in a music show at Kyadondo and this provided Kleberson another opportunity to sell merch. It was his breakthrough.

"My breakthrough was a concert between Bebe Cool and Goodlyfe," he said.

"I printed 150 T-Shirts and sold all of them. Each was Shs30k."

Richard Kleberson said he will never take Cool's trust "for granted."

Bebe Cool said: "He is supporting a worthy brand."

Cool was this past week at Nasser Road as Kleberson launched his second printing outlet. His merch has been watched by several people, including prominent figures like Captain Mike Mukula, former minister and current vice chairman (Eastern Region) for the ruling National Resistance Movement (N.R.M.).

Richard Kleberson, who will make 34 this year, is a content manager at Gagamel Crew and chairman of fans of Gagamel.

He started working with Bebe Cool around 2011 after graduating from university. He grew up in Lyantonde. He went to St. Theresa Senior Secondary School.

The first time he saw Cool was when he came to Lyantonde with Jose Chameleone and Tanzania songstress Saida Karoli. At that time Cool had released his 2001 song King of the Jungle, which had an urban Jamaican feel and that was Kleberson’s kind of music. On other hand, Richard Kleberson’s brother loved Jose Chameleone. His brother would convert from a Chameleone follower to a Cool fan.

When he joined university in 2018, Kleberson started frequently posting pictures of Bebe Cool on Facebook. Some influential members of Gagamel like John Ayiga and Solomon Afuna started noticing. They passed on the information to Cool who liked what he saw.

One day while Kleberson was in Kenya, Cool called him over the phone. He told him that he wanted to work with him.

This was about around 2011 and he had just finished school. Upon return to Kampala, they met and Cool started assigning him different roles, including social media management and promoting music, etc.

He eventually made him his content manager.

Before that, Richard Kleberson had bought a camera at Shs200k which he would use to capture photos at concerts and post on social media.