At the October 4 Martin’s International Reggae and World Music Awards in Miami, African singjay Shatta Wale won the Best New Entertainer category.
The Ghanaian artiste, born Charles Nii Armah Mensah Jnr, is known in his homeland for songs such as Dancehall King, Enter The Net and Like My Ting. He told the Jamaica Observer that he has been making his own brand of dancehall music since the 1990s when he was known as Doggy.
“My Dad was my motivation, playing songs like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Shabba Ranks and Buju Banton,” he said.
A studio engineer by profession, Shatta Wale records most of his songs at his home studio in Ghana. He also works with other African artistes and recently collaborated with Jamaican singjay Jah Vinci on the single “Party All Night.”
The 34-year-old artiste does not want his Jamaican link to stop there. He would love to work with Bounty Killer, Mavado, Beenie Man and Sizzla.
“I collaborating with them would be a perfect musical marriage,” he said. Shatta Wale points to lack of unity among African artistes as one of his greatest challenges.
“I have therefore formed a group called Dancehall Artistes Welfare Association which is going on well in Ghana. Most of us dancehall/reggae musicians in Ghana live in serious poverty but many can’t speak up because of how our industry is,” he said.
