Popular Ghanaian musician Kuami Eugene has a hilarious account of how colleague dancehall star Shatta Wale creates his music, revealing that the dancehall star does not write his lyrics but instead freestyles entirely on pure energy and instinct.
Speaking in an interview with George Quaye, Kuami Eugene described what it was like working with Shatta Wale in the studio.
He noted that Shatta Wale operates completely differently from the normal songwriting approach.
“Shatta Wale, he doesn’t write too. I’m not sure he has a pen. He freestyles, the energy comes, and then he plays the music, and if he likes it, he just flows.
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“He comes to the studio, he plays the music loud and he will just be there like that. Doing his thing, then he just goes ‘pa pa pa pa,'” he said.
Despite the uncommon approach, Kuami Eugene said the results spoke for themselves, noting that the raw energy Shatta Wale brought into the studio was precisely what listeners heard on the finished record.
“You can sense the energy. That same energy you are hearing in the studio, that’s what you’re hearing on the song. He carries it, so you can feel him in the song. The energy and everything in the song,” he added.
