Shatta Wale knocks Coke Studio Africa

In an interview aired on a radio station in Ghana, the ‘Kakai’ singer said Coke Studio has little regard for Ghanaian artists. His comments were based on his disapproval of the appearance fee given to artists from his country.

“They were paid $ 4,000 each,” he said. “That's how they see Ghanaian artistes. They cannot stand for the right thing.”

This is not the first time Shatta Wale, a very vocal artist, has spoken about figures in the Ghana music. He famously fell out with the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards after posting videos online making unflattering remarks about the organisers for which he was banned from entering for the awards this year. 

With Coke Studio Africa, an establishment that has mostly avoided bad publicity, Shatta Wale's issue appears to be entirely financial. “They first offered me $ 4,000 and explained [that] some of the artists they have worked accepted the same amount,” he said on Pluzz FM, “but I told…I am different and I do not take delight in sitting on a plane.”

He added that, “I always do business so I asked my management to talk to them and add some money. So they went and came back with $ 15,000. They spent about 1 and half years to draw this final conclusion.”

Already the reggae-dancehall singer has taken his irritation to social media, where he compares the treatment of Ghanaian singers and other celebrities local and foreign.

“I will like to see more youths take this music career as a job rather than to hype and fake,” he wrote on Facebook. “Asamoah Gyan gets paid and we get to know, Mayweather fights and we get to know how much he made, Chris Brown came to Ghana and we heard how much he took. What are you telling me Ghana artiste? Wake up and stop lying to the youths who see this career as a job.”

EL, Stonebwoy and Efya are some of the Ghanaian artists who have performed on the popular Coke Studio Africa television show.