‘Funtula’: How Bebe used Bobi to ‘fight’ Chameleone, ‘con’ Tony Houls

Cool came up with a song idea and they titled it Funtula.

Tony Houls, who had been working with Bobi Wine’s brother Eddie Yawe, was at the ready to produce the song.

Unfortunately for Houls, Bebe Cool was already a big name and Bobi Wine sort of looked up to him, so he had more influence in the production process.

When the song came out, Houls said in an interview, he “convinced” Wine and they gave credit to Ogopa DJs as producers instead of Houls.

"Yet I did all the work... mastering, programming... I moved on," said Houls in the interview.

In the song, one of the lines goes: "You're calling yourself a boss yet you live in a woman's house."

That line was taking a dig at Chameleone who was then dating Dorotia, a loaded Belgian national, according to Cool’s past interviews.

Dorotia, real name Griet Onsea – shares a daughter named Ayla Onsea Mayanja with Chameleone.

Who is Tony Houls?

Tony Houls Bikumbi was born in Kasubi, and went to a kindergarten in Nakulabye, Aga Khan Primary School, Nakasero Primary School, Makerere Highway College and Kampala Polytechnic Mengo where he studied Electrical Engineering.

He grew up near a church called Heritage owned by Steven Sozi. The church music equipment was stored of the house of Houls’ parents.

He and his brother would steal the piano and practice.

Consequently, the church picked him to play

It's at this church that Eddie Yawe found him.

Yawe used to sing at the church when he was at university.

Houls would play the piano as Yawe sang. Yawe had a band called Dimension and he asked Houls to join them for gigs.

Houls started production at Pastor Herbert Kiwanuka's church in Kawala. The pastor had a studio in his church.

While learning production at this studio, Yawe had gone out of the country and he worked in some other countries before settling in the U.S.

Yawe kept liaising with Houls to brainstorm on music equipment which he kept on buying.

When he returned, they launched Dream Studios.

The first big song they produced there was Nakazi by Bobi Wine.

In the early ages of the studio, they produced for Sophie Nantongo, Mesach Semakula, Ronald Mayinja, etc.

While at Dream Studios, Tony Houls became close to Bobi Wine. Wine pitched the idea of starting a studio.

They formed Fire Recordz. Dream Studio had become popular and it was also crowded yet Wine wanted more time in the studio.

The studio was initially at Wine's home and they moved to different places before settling in Kamwokya. Tony Houls had produced songs for almost all big artistes of his generation.