Shatta Wale

His musical career began during his high school days at the Winneba Secondary School where he learned to play keyboard and received routine vocal training at the school's music class department, then known as Doggy. After secondary school, he then took time to work on his music. Having achieved street credibility in a fairly undeveloped Ghanaian dance hall genre at the time, he soon gained recognition with his hit single, "Moko Hoo", which featured fellow Ghanaian musician Tinny in 2004 using Bandana as his stage name. The song earned him a nomination at the Ghana Music Awards that year. Bandana followed with the hit songs "No Problem" and "Obaa Yaa". At this point, he was receiving heavy rotation on radio and was backed by a fan base that shot him into the mainstream Ghanaian music scene. Despite his prominence, Bandana went missing in the music circus in Ghana.

With a re-branded name from Bandana to Shatta Wale, he started a new career which largely bothers on dance hall in a Jamaican style of production in Nima, a small community in Accra, Ghana, a place that harbors a lot of Muslim youth and ghettos. It was there he amassed a fan base, who were influenced by him and felt empowered by his songs.[11] Wale released songs almost everyday on his social media handles free to download and would perform them in small communities in Accra mostly in Nima. He started gaining slow attention again with songs like "Telephone No" "Anastasia" "My Eyes Pon Di Money" and others. This approach revived dance hall in Ghana, a genre which had been left abandoned. The likes of Root Eye, General Marcus, Yoggy Doggy and others years ago had started but could not breakthrough. Shatta Wale gives credit to the likes of Terry Bonchaka and Yoggy Doggy for nurturing him when he began his dance hall journey. "It was under their tutelage that they told me I was going to blow up and that my style is so unique" he stated in an interview on Peace FM. He explained in an interview with King Lagazee why he had been less active and what the reason for his decreased popularity was.

Largely producing and mastering majority of his songs such as "Havana", "Shatta City", "Enter the Net", "Everybody Likes My Tin", and "Dance hall King", the latter of which became his biggest hit after his comeback. The tracks were well received in Ghana and globally with critics talking about the influence of Jamaican dance hall as many Ghanaians were only used to the type of dance hall called Hip-life with a touch of ragga.Wale then successfully toured Canada and United States in 2014.

The Guardian qualified "Wine Ya Waist" featuring Davido among its five must listened new tracks from around the world.[12] By 2015, has released songs [13] that were receiving international awards and nominations, some of which includes; International Reggae & World Music Awards, Nigeria Entertainment Awards, MOBO. He toured Europe in 2015, and also shared the same stage with P-Square, Flavor and others at the Wembley Arena in London.

In a heated political atmosphere, Wale became one of the most powerful men in Ghana as two biggest political parties, National Democratic Congress[14] and the New Patriotic Party used his hit songs; "Mahama Paper" and "Kakai" to run their campaign in the 2016 general election. In a desultory conversation with an interviewer, Wale stated that: There were some attempts by some members from the political parties to coax him to endorse their party but he did not cling because of his fans. There were banners in town bearing Shatta Movement for NDC but Wale in a Facebook post made it clear that he has not endorsed any political party and all parties running their campaign under the Shatta Movement Banner should desist or face legal action. However, Wale did not hesitate to perform for any of the political parties as his service was demanded.

In 2017, Shatta Wale was named at 27 in the C. Hub Magazine's 100 most influential creatives an annual cumulative rating for Black creatives around the world by the magazine. The list included the likes of Akon, Stormzy, Anthony Joshua among many other black greats.

Songs released from After the Storm album like "Mahama Paper", "Baby (Chop Kiss)", "Biegya (Open Fire)", "Hol'It", and "Kakai" were successful in Ghana. Wale stayed atop the charts locally and also had "Hol'It" top BBC Radio 1Xtra's Afroboss Top 5 songs chart.[15] Rockstar Games co-founder Sam Houser also said he was deeply impressed by the popularity of "KAKAI" and that it made waves within the African community in the United States and beyond, including topping several dance hall charts globally. For that, he stated his wish that bureaucrats would confirm "Kakai" to appear in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6. If confirmed, Wale could earn up to $744,000 annually.[16]

In 2017, he toured the US to promote After the Storm, then traveled to Jamaica to shoot videos for projects he had jointly done with some producers there.

Wale signed with Zylofon Music in January 2018.[17] He released his third album, Reign, on 13 October at the Fantasy Dome in Accra, and used the occasion to propose to his longtime girlfriend Michy on stage.[18] The album achieved a record for a Ghanaian act by appearing on the Billboard Top World Albums Chart, placing sixth.[19]

In 2019 he also had a collaboration with Beyoncé titled “Already” on her album The Lion King: The Gift which climbed international charts and was nominated at the Grammy Awards.[20] He had the most packed concert in the history of Ghana music with his Reign Concert as the only performer.[21] Shatta Wale also featured on the compilation album of the Reggae Edition of The Tropical house Cruises to Jamaica.[22] On July 31, 2020, Shatta wale was featured in Beyonce's Already music video. [23][24]

• After the Storm (2016)[42]
• Cloud 9 (2017, hip hop mixtape)[43]
• Reign (2018)[44]
• Wonder Boy(2019)[45]