Shatta Wale is listed among 4 other artistes, in a Guardian UK publication on the ‘Five Must-Listen New Tracks from around the World’.
Read below what they wrote on him.
This collaboration came out of nowhere. No announcements; no pre-release hype; no press release or even an official artwork. Instead, two days ago this massive collaborative effort between one of Ghana’s fastest-rising artists Shatta Wale and Nigerian pop star Davido just appeared – and it turns out it is one of the best new “afrobeats” songs of 2014.
I write “afrobeats” in inverted commas because although Wine Ya Waist is more a dancehall record than anything else – and while the Shatta Wale sell is that he is a Ghanaian dancehall artist – any music coming out of West Africa onto the world stage will be referred to as “afrobeats”, unfortunately.
I must admit, I’ve tried to not pay attention to Shatta Wale but his name and his music have been virtually inescapable around afrobeats circles for the past six months. The video for his breakthrough hit Dancehall King has nearly one million hits on YouTube, and his latest hit Everybody Likes My Tin is one of the biggest afrobeats songs in the UK right now.
And what can we say about Davido that hasn’t already been said? Ever since he burst onto the Nigerian music scene with the Naet C assistedBack When in 2011, he has remained one of the biggest stars in the country. On the verge of releasing his highly anticipated sophomore album, everything the Lagos native has put out has been pure gold from last year’s Gobe and Skelewu to his latest monster track Aye.
Individually, Shatta Wale and Davido are hit-making superstars, but together they have taken things to another level. I don’t know how this collaboration came about, but I’m guessing this was a one-take session (the two were photographed in a studio just over two weeks before this song found its way online). We all accept that Shatta Wale is the “African Dancehall King” but Davido matches his Ghanaian counterpart bar for bar, lyric for lyric and flow for flow – on his own turf. The outcome is overwhelmingly one of the best new afrobeats record of 2014.