Decrepit fame: From hustling 'Bandana' to noisy gun firing 'Shatta Wale'

Growing up, I actively listened to music, not anymore for religious reasons. It's the basis of how much music I will attempt to exhibit knowing in this piece.

I have traversed GBC's Guinness for your dancing feet through to TV3's Hitz Video with the Iceman. Metro TV's Advertising Cycle and sequels of MTV base. 

But more of the music I have come to know was more via radio. Years of Joy FM (Morning Show (Komla Dumor), Cosmopolitan mix (Doreen Andoh), drive time (Bola Ray) & multi-track show (Kwesi Anim Adjei)) meant I could sing along a medley of tracks. I still can but don't.

Let's cut the chase, I lived in the era when VIP from bogey down Nima were a tough side - Ahomka wom, swept awards at their peak. I lived in the time of Nkasei's 'Tuorbordom' when Tic Tac got us mental with 'Philomena' and when Obrafuor was a shining light with 'sense-laden' tracks. I cannot forget batman's hit single Linda and Abrewa Nana's Odo Filla. 

Of course, there were many others, Tinny, Sonny Achiba, KK Fosu et al. The Kojo Antwis, Amandzebas, Rex Omars, Daddy Lumbas and Gyedu Blay Ambulley's all churned out hits that music lovers enjoyed.

Bandana (then), Shatta Wale (now)

At that time was an artiste known as 'bandana' who always looked as if he was in a rush, always running across any stage. He was a very ordinary artiste who did not make it anywhere - at least at the time. I didn't even bother know his real name. From 'Bandana from Ghana' with its 'moko hoo' respone and 'aafee fee shi still anyee,' was about all there was to the artiste.

Years down the line, fame finally found him. And with each step, he feels like he has more than arrived. The latest idiocy being the firing a gun at perceived enemies. Right after needlessly and unprovokedly joining "issues" with a Nigerian artiste.

I have heard also of verbal tirades even against persons that have criticised the content of his music. Flying the banner of a certain Shatta Movement, Charles Nii Armah Mensah "Shatta Wale" continues to defy common sense and to remember that many have come before him and before long he'd be gone as he came.

It doesn't matter that you sang at Mahama's final rally and he crushed at 44%+. It's of no significance that a tweet exchange with the man who beat Mahama earned you a Flagstaff House visit and I hear a car.

Now listen, it's no insult that some of your lyrics are nonsense. Who cares how many tracks you can record in a minute. You risk fighting yourself when you are done fighting any and everybody. Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart quoted an Igbo proverb that "Those whose palm kernels are cracked for them by a benevolent spirit, should not forget to be humble."

And oh, just as I finished this article, I read that he had slapped a bodyguard during a concert in Accra, if you ask me, his latest piece of madness but that is exactly what the young man should check - to put himself in check.