Just some few days of its release, Samini’s ‘Pink Sheet’single has sparked a lot of controversies and complaints from lovers ofdancehall music in and out of the country. Some believe the Dancehall Artiste of the Year, BestDancehall Artiste and Best Performer award winner at the just ended Bass Award 2013ceremony shouldn’t have recorded such a song at all after almost a year or moreof being silent on all sort of negative singles and series of music attacks fromthe current recognized dancehall king in Ghana Bandana, who is well known inthe country as Shata Wale. A section of the public believe even though Saminidid not mention Shata Wale’s name in the ‘Pink Sheet’ song, one can easily readmeanings and perhaps say for a fact who he is pointing fingers at, which tothem looks infantile.

The question most asked after listening to the track is ifSamini saw Shata Wale of ‘yesterday’ as ‘nobody’ when it comes to dancehallmusic in the country and for that matter didn’t respond to the attacks thatcame from him through his songs, why respond now? Is he feeling the competitionnow that Shata is also climbing the ladders of dancehall music in the country?Or is he just admitting that Shata Wale’s series of dissing songs have workedfor him, hence the need for him to follow the dissing trend?

Some youths believe the ‘Pink Sheet’ single has reallyexposed how desperate Samini is to ride on the fame of some African act that ismaking it big internationally. It was also pointed out by these youths thatsince the artiste attempt to ride on the popularity of Nigerian duo P-Squaredid not work out for him when he did a reply to the duo’s ‘Alingo’ song, he isonly coming back to attack Shata and Sarkodie whose fan-base of music lovers inthe country is becoming bigger each day especially with dancehall king ShataWale.

According to these dancehall enthusiasts, whoever advisedSamini to record the ‘Pink Sheet’ song after Shata’s public apology to him hasmade a very huge mistake since they believe Shata and Sarkodie’s silence to ‘PinkSheet’ will not only give especially Shata Wale some advantage in the countrybut also expose how ‘weak’ Samini is when it comes to lyrical dancehall musicbecause these youths believe the song lacks lyric strength especially with thephony Patois lyrics which easily makespeople identify which or what is a dancehall music. They explainedthey don’t mean dancehall can’t be made in any language apart from the Patoisbut it is more or less the ‘mother tongue’ to typical dancehall music.

The dancehall patrons who have critically examined ‘Pink Sheet’are of the opinion that Samini could have released such a song when Shata Wale,some time ago called him a traitor in one of his songs or when he disclosed inone of his interviews on Happy FM with DJ Advicer that he (Samini) had beenspeaking bad about him to various promoters who needed his services and notthis very hour when the artiste works are being recognized and accepted by themasses.

A section of thesedancehall fans also think this could perhaps be a planned thing between the twodancehall artistes just to keep the debates going and also keep them in thenews especially when it is on record that Bandana during the Bass Awards NomineesJam apologized to Samini and all he might have offended through his songs andactions and even promised his fans a collaborative piece with Samini. ShataWale’s respond to the ‘Pink Sheet’ song will really tell the gimmick about thewhole drama. Since they can do this to enjoy the hype for some time but willlater collaborate to do a song together.

Well we are all yet to see if Shata Wale or Sarkodie willrespond to the song but as to whether it a planned thing or a gimmick betweenShata and Samini, I believe nobody can say or tell for now. Let pose this question to you, my dear reader to muse over:“Who among these two dancehall artistes is enjoying the ‘hype’ or who is ridingon whose current fame?

Reagan Odei Ofosu Osarfo reagano.oofosu@aol.com