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In the last decade Nigeria has dominated the African music scene, Considering the fact that the Top 100 Apple Music charts for Ghana has Ten Nigerians sitting on the top 10, Shatta Wale’s recent outburst begins to seem a little less moronic.
If you do not keep up with African entertainment news you may not have heard that Shatta Wale a Ghanaian Dancehall artist had some choice words for Nigeria and her artists at his most recent concert in Ghana where Shatta claimed Nigeria didn’t support Ghanaian art/artists and only used them.
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I believe every relationship is based off mutual benefit including love, the relationship between Nigeria and the rest of Africa as far as music is concerned isn’t an exception.
A typical Nigerian artist with a reasonable budget at his disposal factors in as many other African countries as possible into his promo plan.
Media tours,Honorarium to OAP’s, payment for airplay and as many collaborations as possible to tap into the countries audience.
Wizkid for example has collaborated with everyone from America’s “Drake” to MHD from France to even Ghana’s very own R2bees and Efya who are also currently signed to his label.
One of Davido’s biggest songs in recent times “Activate” featured Ghanaian artist Stonebwoy.
Even the grammy award winning African giant Burna Boy blessed a young upcoming Ghanaian Drill artist Black sheriff with a Remix of his Smash hit “Second Sermon”.
Wizkid, Davido and Burna boy are the three biggest music artists in Nigeria, therefore it is crystal clear that Shatta’s Rant about Nigeria not showing love to Ghanaian music is far fetched.
I however took some time to contemplate how it would feel if as a Nigerian artist the top 10 songs on our charts were owned by Ghanaian artists and this thought helped me empathize with Shatta Wale’s plight.
Even Stonebwoys diplomatic corroboration of Shatta Wale’s rant must be inspired by the fact that he knows that his songs always fall under Nigerian songs on the charts. In terms of proper branding and international appeal, Stonebwoy is Ghana’s finest music export, however even he has not been able to break out of the shadow cast by Nigeria’s music and it’s effect on the Ghanaian Audience.
Why is Nigeria’s music more appealing to the Ghanaian audience than Ghanaian music is?
Why would they rather support our artists than theirs?
Whilst I cannot answer these questions better than a Ghanaian can, I strongly believe that Nigeria and her artists are simply reaping the benefits of several years of hard work and consistency as well as a lot of financial investments .
We have successfully branded our sound as “Elite” like an iPhone or a Benz .
So whilst there may be other similarly useful phones and maybe even some with better functions than an iPhone, most people would rather use an iPhone, more because of the brand value than the actual product.
It is also worth noting that Nigerian artists have over the years learnt to invest in the quality of their sound, this added incentive can be attributed as another major reason why Ghanaians lean more towards Nigeria’s music.
From production to sound engineering, we make sure our songs are sonically appealing and this is not limited to our A list artists, Even upcoming Nigerian artists are willing to invest in proper production to ensure that the Nigerian standard is met.
I hope Shatta Wale finds peace and someone to advise him against a physical altercation with Odogwu aka Burna boy, To quote the legend “Your back and your spinal cord go break…”
