The Rivalry in Ghana: Stonebwoy and Shatta Wale Released after the former Start Pulls Gun on Stage
The rivalry in Ghana’s dancehall music space is spiraling out of hand, all to the detriment of the image of the music industry in the country.
Instead of being a source of inspiration and wellspring of wisdom to upcoming artistes, the two stars are publicly showing their differences. Since 2012, Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy have been involved in brawls which escalated to dangerous levels during the 2019 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards ceremony in Accra.
The clash transpired when Stonebwoy was receiving the award for “Dancehall Artist of the Year” and Shatta Wale together with his crew, forced their way to the stage, prompting Stonebwoy to pull out his gun as a natural reaction to imminent danger. No one was harmed in the melee and the ceremony continued as planned.
The two have since been released on bail, but would be arraigned in court later at an unknown date. A third person, according to BBC, was accused of spraying pepper spray during the brawl. The person was also released on bail.
Stonebwoy, at 30 years, has managed to create a name for himself as an afropop, dancehall, and reggae artist year after year, bagging for himself several achievements along the way including winning “Best International Act: Africa” at the 2015 BET Awards.
He is indeed an icon to watch out for if we are to go by his record of releasing lengthy albums, getting international collaborations and being included in world tours.
Shatta Wale, on the other hand, at 34 years old, crowns himself the King of Dancehall by repeatedly putting it on his tracks title. At some point in his music career, he rebranded himself from the name Bandana.
The competition for the Ghanaian title of “The King of Dancehall” has managed to drag in one of the veteran reggae/dancehall singer Samini, resulting in social media jabs and outbursts.
Interestingly, Samini has taken the high road in all these beef and chooses not to respond to anything unless provoked by Shatta Wale, leaving the heat of the rivalry for the past 5 years running between the two young stars.
Stonebwoy has also managed to avoid disrespecting his mentor, Samini, who assisted him catapult his footing by allowing him to use his Samini record label.
Efforts had been made to try to reconcile these two young artistes in the public; case end point in 2015 when Stonebwoy invited Shatta Wale on stage as he gave his acceptance speech.
However, Shatta Wale didn’t seem to take this honorably and decided to pull a few low jabs at his counterpart by releasing a diss-track in March 2018 titled “No Mercy For The Cripple,” aimed at making fun of Stonebwoys knee condition.
By Mercy Ahiambo Oginga
Africa Global News Publication
