Shatta Wale’s assertion that he is the Dancehall King is a fallacy because he cannot be better than those who created it, says Highlife legend, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley.
“You sitting down here calling yourself Dancehall King, we know that the Dancehall was created in Jamaica. So are you a better king than those that created it, you who is an imitator?,” asked Ambolley on 3 FM.
“Because we are not being real to ourselves. We don’t have anything that is of our origin coming from our side of this world. We are doing too much of a copy than becoming creative. That is the problem we have,” he added.
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley is a Ghanaian highlife musician, songwriter, producer, and composer. The first musician from Ghana to formally incorporate rap forms into local highlife rhythms, Ambolley created the musical genre Simigwa.
In June 2015 Ambolley received a citation in the USA from the City Council of Philadelphia, read by Council woman; Honorable Jannie Blackwell and Hon. Stanley J. Staughter in recognition of the musician’s contributions to Ghanaian music in the USA.
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley was rather unknown outside of West Africa until Soundway Records included his seminal Simigwa-Do, which Ambolley released in 1973, on their first anthology, Ghana Soundz.
