Our #AOTW on the segment today is a Ghanaian reggae-dancehall act and producer. ‘He’s got some acting profile as well. He’s somewhat controversial artist known for his blunt-talks, may be aggression, which usually gathers storm around him. He’s got beef with some Nigerian acts in recent past even with artists in his very home country Ghana. Shatta is a handful though. I kinda like him for some reasons though! He pushes music for his culture. He’s not only popular in Ghana. He’s also recognized beyond due to his massive waves in the music world. I have some doubt in my mind that the Nigerian audience knows much about Shatta (Shotta) Wale. We may have to put up a poll so as to get your guys’ responses.
Well!… He happens to be one of Ghanaian acts that made dancehall the most successful genre in Ghana music industry on the list with the likes of Stonebwoy and more. Shatta has been prioritizing on reviving dancehall music in Ghana especially since prominent musicians had passed on and nobody seemed to give attention to the genre.
Great! Shatta Wale was born Charles Nii Armah Mensah Jr. on October 17th, 1984 (35). Growing up in Accra, Ghana, his family valued education and his father – a great fan of reggae music, wanted him to become a lawyer. He would always insist that he completes his education first. But Shatta Wale wanted to become an artist right from secondary school. Right from Secondary school he chose to be called Doddy- name inspired by a popular Ghanaian reggae artist. He later changed the name to ‘Bandana’ after he had clinched a recording deal. He chose the name because he loved to wear Bandana.
He also had a song titled in the same name before he finally stormed the dancehall music industry in the year 2004 with the song ‘MokoHoo’ which which features Tinny and increased his fan base. He dropped a couple of hits that same year: ‘ObaaYaa’ and ‘No Problem’.
No 4: Moko Hoo”, which features Tinny (this got he nominated for his first Ghana Music Awards. Though, he did not win the award)
Shatta Wale had achieved street credibility in a fairly undeveloped Ghanaian dancehall genre in 2004 and subsequently disappeared from the music scenes to Jamaica for close to ten years. His father had introduced him to the Jamaican culture by playing Reggae records in the house besides his constant travel with him to the UK to meet his relatives who were half Jamaicans as a child.
While in Jamaica, he learned about Dancehall music, beats production and how to mix and master beats. He came back rebranded with the name Shatta Wale in 2013 under his own record label ‘SM For Lyf Records’. Then he would drop songs almost every day on his social media handles free to download and would performed them in small communities in Accra mostly.
He started gaining slow attention again with songs like “Telephone No” “Anastasia” “My Eyes Pon Di Money” and others. You wanna know what Shatta Wale means? Stay right here! We push play for 3&2 right now!
No 3: Everybody Likes My / Like my Ting’ (won the 4Style Music Video Award Best Reggae Dancehall Video and The Most Popular Video 2013, Won the BASS Awards 2014 Best Video Dancehall ‘.)
No 2: Shatta Wale – Shatta With 9” ft Jamaican Diva 9tyz – Classic Jam.
Welcome back folks, we’ve been talking SW! And that was Dancehall King to the fact that SW has been dominant since 2013 after his successful resurgence in the GH music scene with the release of that hit single; with over six years up and down in the industry, he churned out banger tunes. He’s appeared in the films Never Say Never, The trial of Shatta Wale, and Shattered Lives (that’s some pun there) as well.
Interestingly, some have wondered what exactly does his stage name -Shatta Wale mean. Here we are! Shatta (Shotta) is a Jamaican slang for ‘Gangster’, while WALE is an acronym for ‘World Alerted Lyrical Entertainer’.
ALBUMS:
He’s got ‘The Guardian’ album together with Davido in 2015. He has 3 studio albums to his name After the Storm (a studio album of 2016), Cloud 9 (a 2017, hip hop mixtape), Reign (third album released in October 2018 )
Shatta Wale has done much collaboration with top ranking Jamaican artistes; recognized on Jamaican: Riddims, Star Magazine and Jamaican Popular Charts compiled by Zojak World Wide according to ghanamusic.com He’s collaborated with some top notch Nigerian acts as well. For instance his “Wine Ya Waist” featuring Davido is one of his top must listened tracks from around the world. The collaborated on an album that made him become globally famous and got nominated for bigger international awards.
AWARDS & NOMINATION:
Shatta Wale has won 71 awards. Earlier in January 2019, he took to social media –his instagram handle @shattawalenima listing all the awards he has won from 2013 till date. According to the handle @ShattaWaleFact, this “make him the most awarded Dancehall Artiste in Africa”
He had the best of years in 2015 and 2016 clinching bigger and better awards. Some of the awards include: International Reggae & World Music Awards, Nigeria Entertainment Awards, MOBO etc. In 2015, his songs Chop Kiss won the Best African Song and Entertainer at the International Reggae and world Music Award. ‘Hol It’, got nominated but did not win at the Ghana Music Awards UK in 2016. His song ‘Dancehall King’ also won him an award for the Ghana Music Awards also. ‘Enter the Net’ bagged him the Dancehall of the Year award at the 2014 BASS Awards.
Shatta Wale has won Artiste of the Year 2014 Ghana Music Awards, 2 Nigeria Entertainment Awards for African Male Artiste of the Year, AFRIMA for Dancehall Artiste of the Year, International Reggae and World Music Awards, Africa Entertainment Awards for Best Dancehall Artist, African Pride Awards for Artiste of the Year. He won 8 awards at the 3music awards in 2019
Shatta Wale biffs: Sarkodie, Wizkid, Stonebwoy which is the biggest?
In November 2017, Shatta Wale tweeted saying he had no admiration for Wizkid. That was some days after the Starboy dominated the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA). So that resulted in further rants between Shatta and Wizkid fans who termed Wale’s tweets as disrespectful, full of hate and desperation. Shatta Wale on a radio interview over there in Ghana said he doesn’t see Wizkid to be too much for him but Ghanaians or Ghanaian artistes see him like that. He said he doesn’t want to see Wizkid and feel like ‘oh wow.’ Instead he wants Starboy to see him and go like ‘oh wow.’ Perhaps all that has changed now
No 1 Kakai’ (off his the After The Storm – a studio album released in April, 2016. It made waves within the African community in the United States and beyond, including topping several dancehall charts globally).
In 2015: won the Africa Europe DJ Award (Italy), the best song of the year award, DJ’s Song of the Year at the Ghana DJ Awards, was also voted the Most Popular song at the Ghana Music Awards UK while he won an award for being the Music Producer of the year. In 2016, at the Ghana Music Awards UK, the song was nominated as the dancehall song of the year in but did not win
CONCLUSION
There have been reports that the Ghanaian music industry needs some form of restructuring. Hopefully, the likes of Shatta Wale’s advocacy for a revolution especially the Ghanaian industry on how the country can be self-sufficient; and how Ghanaian artistes can become International stars without necessarily lobbying for endorsement from Nigeria will change the narration some day. That’s where we draw the curtains on the #TBS today.
Guys, let’s keep the curtain open over there on our socials until the next week: www.theboxshowafrica.com, @theboxshowafrica Facebook, @dboxshowafrica on Instagram and Twitter.
