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12.12.2018 Feature Article

The One-Legged Man, Stonebwoy

The One-Legged Man, Stonebwoy
12.12.2018 LISTEN

“The guy who owns the My Level song has already come out to claim it and the Gringo that he [Shatta Wale] released also had its own problems,” Stonebwoy said on the Joy Showbiz Show.

In Twi, that is, the original language of his expression, these words had the marks of someone who isn't so sure about the truth of what he heard, although, one may think, he desperately wished they were true. When asked what he meant by saying Gringo was Vybz Kartel’s, he clearly said, ‘yeah, that's what I know.’

What he knew was not portrayed in ways that suggested any truth, rather it was on the account of what he heard. He heard that the Gringo song originally belonged to Vybz Kartel and had not stated or implied in the interview that it was true. Upon noticing this, I realized he has given me and anyone who wishes to think about this matter the right to ask whether the songs he mentioned truly belonged to Shatta Wale. Do they belong to him?

How do we even know the truth for ourselves when, in a Snapchat video, Shatta Wale, instead of revealing the truth of those songs, decides to play on Stonebwoy’s physical condition. That is, the condition of his leg— what we already know is true of him.

We all know this physical condition to be true of Stonebwoy but do we know what's true of Shatta Wale’s Gringo and My Level songs? Rather than build a case for what's true of the Gringo and My Level songs, Shatta Wale exploits what we already know is true of Stonebwoy, as if a ‘one-legged’ man cannot task him with telling the truth. How disrespectful.

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