Shatta Wale
This outstanding artiste identifies himself as being overdose with music in his genes and doubles as the king of dance hall music in Ghana. Charles Nii Armah Mensah Jr. popularly known as Shatta Wale is the man you’ll love to hate as far as our showbiz industry is concerned. He’s solely the artiste in Ghana who needs no introduction as all ears listen to his music and foots taps as his beats flows. There’s no two ways about that! Shatta Wale has taken over from his colleague musicians and currently stand as the most popular artiste everywhere you go like MTN Ghana.
Shatta Wale’s second coming into the music industry wasn’t as easy as one could imagine now as there existed a bunch of musicians who were making waves and headlines by then. On records, Shatta Wale felt cheated in 2013 VGMAs when dancehall diva, Kaakie’s ‘Toffee Pon Tongue’ song was awarded the best reggae/dancehall song of the year. Afterwards, the true assertive nature of Shatta came to full display and roar like a lion to everybody who interferes his movements.
Fast forward, entertainment pundits and music enthusiasts doubted if Shatta Wale could go far, taking into consideration his character as he appears to have problems with virtually all the entertainment players especially Charterhouse Ghana. Likewise, Ghanaians questioned the rate at which Shatta Wale releases songs. In the year 2009, he released not less than 100 tracks which is unprecedented in our music history.
There’s no doubt, a critical analysis of the year 2016 till now will reveal that Shatta Wale has the highest number of hit songs. Namely; Mahama Paper, Chop Kiss, Kakai, Champion, Biegya, Ayoo, Others, while Taking Over is currently on heat. Simply put, the man Shatta Wale keeps going higher no matter the criticisms leveled against him.
I can authoritatively say that he’s the most critiqued artist ever in Ghana from all angles. Whilst entertainment critic like Mark Okraku Mantey picks up a beef with him, MUSIGA, Charterhouse Ghana, bloggers and colleague artistes will be condemning him indirectly as well. He’s like one man against the world in our entertainment industry, but still keeps winning and making headlines as well.
Currently, Shatta Wale has become a household name on the lips of Ghanaians even primary school students as he knows how and when to be in the news either for the good or bad course. Not long ago, he found himself in the United States and had the chance to meet G-unit boss, 50 Cent. Prior to their meeting, he managed to stay relevant in the media as he was seen in a night club doing his own stuffs. He came down here comparing MUSIGA’s office to ‘Auntie Akosua Bar’ of which the location is only known to him.
To make long story short, Shatta Wale has been able make good use of the media consistently. More importantly, he has got a powerful fan base (Shatta Movement Family) who rally and are willing to defend him no matter the threats. On records, failure on the part of an artist to keep his name updated in the media diminishes his or her relevance or better still popularity. Truly, Shatta Wale does it so well. He keeps on releasing hit songs to the satisfaction of the majority even those who profess to hate him in public dance to his tunes in secrecy.