Man like Shatta Wale!

The Afro locks, rugged looks, trademark shades, sneer at the corners of the lips, audacious bling, the provocative lyrics – it is classic Shatta, Africa’s dancehall King!

Since the dawn of my Shatta awareness a few months ago, I have simply lost track of the number of people I have encountered wearing Shatta Wale branded T-shirts; good people minding their daily business by the roadside, shoppers at the Accra Mall, masons at work, etc. 

Something definitely is going on and the Shatta Movement is no fluke! Shatta Wale, Africa’s dance hall king, is without doubt, the man of the moment. He is also king of the streets. In Shatta’s own words, “Everybody likes my tin!”

Some claim that the person who can be identified by the waakye seller from the back of the queue has arrived. I say that the person that is a name in the mouths of babies has truly arrived. In due course, Shatta confirmed what I had only suspected when I overheard two children in conversation. 

A seven-year-old sang and screamed “Shatta” which attracted an immediate response from a four-year-old, “My teacher says no one should say Shatta Wale. It is not good!” Talk of fear of the unconventional! What some dread, others take inspiration from? Such is the way of life!

What is it about the dance hall commando, the Korle Gonno Godfather and multiple award winner that is working so well? In my line of work, we say that we have a responsibility to learn the details of what is working. 

Once known, the next challenge becomes one of spreading best practices to achieve impact at scale. Are Shatta Wale’s lyrics and musicianship simultaneously so meaningful yet beautifully simple and so easy to connect with that he is virtually achieving viral spread?  

Even so, Shatta has not always been the most visible on the national reggae dance hall scene. That he is its centre piece in Ghana today bears ample testimony to his creativity and persistence and perhaps personal conviction in his flair for his music. And he has achieved this not bothering too much about the pretentious judgments of officious bystanders. And the multiple awards do bear testimony of his acceptance by the people who truly matter – the masses!

Most recently at this year’s 9th edition of the Nigeria Entertainment Awards in New York, Shatta was adjudged African Artiste of the Year, beating off competition from Ghanaian musicians, Sarkodie, and R2Bees; South Africans, Uhuru, Mafikizolo, and Mi Casa; and Congolese singer Fally Ipupa.

This was in addition to the Artiste of the Year, Best Collaboration, and Reggae/Dance hall Song of the Year awards at this year’s Ghana Music Awards. Additionally, in 2014, he has won three similar awards with the African Muzik Magazine Awards.

Enroute to achieving these laurels, Shatta Wale has hardly been your typical role model. He refused to show up for the Ghana Music Awards ‘because of a rift over his performance fee for the awards night.” As he later explained, he was not going cheap, asking to be treated with financial respect just like foreign artistes!

A year earlier, he had had a full blown bust up with award organisers, accusing them of daylight robbery of awards for which he thought he was deserving. He also recently deployed a choice selection of invectives in the way of a journalist that reported on his alleged arrest which his managers claimed to be wholly inaccurate. 

The learning, perhaps, is that there is something to be said for staying honest and true to one’s convictions if even judged imperfect by those of us human beings that are perfect. And while at it, it pays to apply oneself if even your undisguised talent is initially acknowledged by only a few. 

Clearly, the light will eventually shine forth, undisputed, as in the case of Shatta. What remains for me is to observe just how committed to music Shatta will prove to be,  just how much staying power he will turn out to have and the direction in which his music will eventually evolve.

To his adoring fans like Mzbel, however, this honest expression of true views, shorn of buttered up public relations gimmicks is what makes Shatta Wale an original product that is truly connected with the masses, starting from his humble roots in Korle Gonno.  This may ultimately be the only reason why everyone likes ‘Shatta’s tin’.  As it turns out, Shatta Wale does have a cogent musical explanation delivered in a rich baritone:

Me fight like Mike Tyson

Me dance like Michael Jackson

Me kill a lion like Samson

Speed dem up like Ben Johnson

Me rule them like Jerry John Rawlings

Me cannot take no nonsense

Me love pretty girls like Yvonne Nelson

Drop hits like Sammy Forson

Like Azumah Nelson, yeah me like boxing

That’s why everybody like my tin 3x

See say everybody like my tin, 3x

Big up to man- like Shatta in the upcoming 2014 International Reggae and World Music Awards for which he has been nominated!

Sodzi_tettey@hotmail.com