09/12/2023
TBT:
MYSTERY OF THE ‘FACELESS’ OGOPA DJS
Lucas and Francis Bikedo. Two brothers. They are the owners of the brand and record label, OGOPA DJs.
Ever since they founded the record label in the year 2000, most people know their names, but not how they look like, 23 years later.
Only a few Kenyan musicians, a fraction of entertainment journalists and showbiz industry players have met these two brothers.
Francis, a banker by profession, never attends any event. He manages the business side of Ogopa and makes the bigger decisions when it comes to management.
Lucas, on the other hand, is the man behind the creative section of the label. A former graphic designer at a government parastatal, he mastered his music skills at Homeboyz Entertainment, before he opened the Ogopa label with his brother.
Lucas attends events very selectively. It must be special for him to attend. And when he does, you will hardly pick him out from the crowd, he will either have a hood on to avoid the paparazzis or will mingle with the crowd and avoid the VIP section.
These are not conspiracy theories. Those in the industry will tell you the same. I don’t think there is any entertainment photographer in Kenya who has his picture.
The only faces most people know of Ogopa DJs are that of Emmanuel Banda, their former long serving spokesman, and the red screaming head in their logo.
If you visit Ogopa DJs studios in South B (not sure they are still at the same place they have been for close to 20 years), as a journalist, you cannot go past their reception area.
That’s where all meetings and interviews are done. They don’t even allow just any other entertainment journalist to visit there. They must know you well.
Personally, I have been to Ogopa many times between 2004 and 2015. I have also spoken face to face to Lucas and Francis, but I never got an opportunity to take their photos. They meant it when they said ‘no photos please’.
But why stay away from the limelight yet they have had a major impact in the Kenyan music industry?
I once asked the two brothers this question in an interview. Rumor had it that they had told their parents that they are both bankers. They didn’t want them to be ‘disappointed’ once they realized that they do music instead.
The two soft-spoken brothers neither confirmed nor denied these rumors.
What’s interesting is that even when Lucas moved to Namibia in the late 2000s to form Ogopa-Butterfly, which managed Channel O award winners Gal Level, he still avoided the media there. Only his business partner in Namibia got the media limelight.
