The contents of the songs re-
leased by Shatta Wale in the
spirit of score-settling are so
damning one might be convinced
there is much more to it. Charles
Nii Armah Mensah Jr aka Shatta
Wale will go down in the history
of Ghanaian music as the Most
Controversial music artiste – the
Fela Kuti of Ghana. He has per-
haps ‘beefed’ everyone within the
secular music fraternity.
D
ays prior to the launch
of his most anticipated
album – Reign, rapper
Sarkodie released a song titled
“The Advice” which he is be-
lieved to have attributed to the
Dancehall artiste. Being a critic
and sometimes fan of Sarkodie,
I was elated by his performance
on this song. I believe Sarkodie
performed well on the song, I
am not referring to the content
only but the overall production
and delivery; it is an improved
version of M.anifest’s godMC.
I will not dwell much on the
technicalities of the song nor its
contents. I wish to dwell on the
impact of ‘beefing’ on our society.
We may not be able to eliminate
this phenomenon from our music
industry; as they say it a tool they
sometimes use to stay relevant
or bring relevance to each other.
Sad as it is, it is the truth. There
is nothing like bad publicity, after
all. What about their fans and
followers? These fans look up to
celebrities; they emulated them.
They are those who take these
issues seriously and believe that
'bad' blood really exist amongst
their favorite artistes. How do
we reconcile these people? Al-
tercations should not become
acceptable in our industry. What
the fans deserve are good con-
tents, decency and sanity. Music
artistes must begin to realize that
their careers depend on their
fans therefore they must respect
them. Why should fans be forced
to judge issues they have no idea
how they originated? Maybe,
rather than producing a song,
music artistes can call or send
texts to each other and express
their grievances like the rest of us
do and there will be lasting peace
in the realm once again – like
they put it in fairytales; “…and
they lived happily ever after”.
Altercations in the music industry
should not be encouraged.