Shatta Wale And His Love-Hate Relationship With Managers

Social media sphere and even main stream media went into a frenzy when Charles Nii Mensah aka Shatta Wale made startling revelations on Accra based Pluzz FM regarding his onetime paddy and manager Bulldog.

Bulldog and his Bullhaus Entertainment had offered a press release on October 31, 2015 announcing that the outfit was no longer having a working relationship with Shatta Wale.

It appears that move by Bullhaus Entertainment incensed the eccentric entertainer to come out and state his case fearing as he put it “that many people would just assume I am the bad guy no one can work with.”

Despite the numerous allegations levelled by Wale on 2nd November, 2015 including Bulldog not being proactive in securing him shows and deals, feeds off from his labour, was doing well before Bulldog joined the Shatta Movement, Bulldog has no exquisite dress style and lazes about, the one claim which focused the lens on many Ghanaians on the two is the claim that Bulldog threatened to kill him twice.

“I have repeated the part about him threatening to kill me twice and I won’t hide it. Somebody asked him; Bulldog are you not the same person who has issues to answer in Ghana about thing like these, and he responded; don’t mind him, I will kill him like I killed the other guy.”

It is the above quote which led many discussions on radio, Twitter, Facebook and other platforms to ask if the other guy purported was in reference to late Fennec Okyere, who until his death was the manager of Kwaw Kesse and a business man in his own right.

For an investigation which had hit a snag and for a family in anguish not knowing the killer/killers of their relation who was brutally murdered in his apartment, this piece of information is welcome news and rightly so the police is reported to have re-open the investigation to hopefully conclude this matter.

Lawrence Nana Asiama Hanson a.k.a Bulldog has been detained once in connection with the Fennec case but was released due to insufficient evidence. Per his statement, a good number of Ghanaians are interested to know if Shatta Wale himself had knowledge of the Fennec murder and remained mum only to hit back after relation with Bulldog had gone sour.

Emmanuel Botchwey aka Kwaw Kese, the hiplife/hip-hop artiste who lost greatly when Fennec died has expressed his misery about the revelations. It is safe to say many parties including Ursula Owusu whom Fennec lodged with for some time are all awaiting some information as to progress of the enquiry.

Interestingly this is not the first time that Shatta Wale has broken up with his manager in quite acrimonious circumstances. In 2005 while working on his sophomore album, Shatta Wale then Bandana told Musicbiz magazine that he was no longer working with West Wise Production, the label that produced and managed his Bandana album.

Despite trying to be diplomatic and stressing that he bore no grudge with his former boss, Bandana nonetheless stated that he was not enthused about the way his boss handled him adding “how can one manage you without bothering to know where you live.” That chapter was closed.

After years in the music wilderness, Shatta Wale then hooked up with Emmanuel Barnes a.k.a Mr. Logic and that union was quite fruitful with Mr. Logic then at XFM availing his show for Shatta Wale who was guest on the show number without count to state goings-on in his life in addition to his music dominating the playlist.

The two were like brothers inseparable at most events. At a point they lived together and smoked the herb in communal spirit but that union also ended at the time the ‘Dancehall King’ song was rising when Mr. Logic claimed he severed the relationship because of Wale’s unruly behaviour making managing him extremely difficult.

Related Story: http://www.blakkpepper.com/2015/07/shatta-wale-the-range-rover-and-mr-logic/

Today it is the divorce of Bulldog and Shatta Wale with death threats cited as the reason. The bond between Shatta Wale and Bulldog was established after the Mr. Logic era in 2013 and became so solid that observers urged Bulldog to act as manager and not just blindly support his artiste on every occasion.

Merging their acerbic tongue, it was Samini who was at the receiving end with Shatta and Bulldog throwing missives with Bulldog mocking Samini’s name (rain god) as representing victory for a time as the sun always outshines the rain.

The issue of credibility on the part of Shatta Wale comes up when he seeks to relegate the contributions of Bulldog. Can it not be said that since joining the Shatta Movement, Wale had secured more awards, a departure from his trophy-less years and was it not the same Shatta Wale who in a TV interview disclosed that Bulldog was a pillar in his music life often directing from the stands even when he is performing on stage?

Relationships have the defect of failing which is nothing new, everyone must face justice when criminality is established and defending blindly can prove costly as the Shatta Wale-Bulldog saga has shown. Sadly we are told there was no contract which makes this drama even more peculiar.

Only time can reveal what we seek to know which some seek to protect.