Below is a statement sent to us by a group of persons claiming to be the original owners and founders of the group Shatta Movement, which has for some time now been linked to dancehall act Shatta Wale.

We publish portions of their statement, unedited.

“We own and registered SHATTA MOVEMENT FAMILY for a simple course that is to help promote ghetto youth doing well in a chosen field. The main focus of the group is bigger than music; it is a lifestyle company that wants to supports young people in ghettos from the streets selling small chops to the doctors, nurses, boxers, footballers and creative arts.

SMF have the mindset of doing business with corporate bodies and building ghetto youth’s image that hustling that does not mean you dirty or not smart but it means if you can make something out of nothing, then, you are the one corporate Ghana should use to market its brand.

Shatta movement is not ‘dirty’, violence or noisy but as a movement and a family, one person cannot claim ownership, the very moment you do that you are selling out the people whose idea and efforts went into the brand. Also if one person claims ownership, how will the rest of the ghetto youth in the movement get help and come out successful in their chosen fields.

The movement was started by Sly Shatta (based in America) then his company was Sly – Ent which was a studio based in Darkuman Nyametse. Sly could not do it all hence he met Cyfa & Juwaid who shared in his vision of love, trust and loyalty for each other as Ghetto boys.

The three agreed to form the Shatta Movement with others such as Abarture (based in Germany) and Abas based in South Africa.

Then the agenda was set straight with the movement formed to propagate the good deeds of young people in society.

‘We brought Bandana into the movement in 2010, that time his fame had died out but I convinced family to support me so we bring his fame back, Juwaid noted.

‘My brothers (Cyfa & Juwaid) brought Bandana to me when I was at x95.1fm. That time I saw his promo CD and it had ‘Chockstillsquad’ written on it. So I asked him where he belongs and he said openly that he was with that squad but now he is with the ‘Shatta Movement family’.

‘The story between us (Shatta Movement family) and Bandana is a long one but what we want Ghanaians to know is that, Shatta movement is a family of boys from Nima, Newtown, Mamobi, etc of ghettos hence one person cannot claim ownership and to even go to the extent of dirtying it like how he (Bandana) has.

We want him to stop claiming ownership of the name and brand ‘Shatta Movement’ in order to allow the other ghetto youth in football, boxing, nursing and music to stand for it because it was built on trust love and loyalty not violence.

We are sending this warning. Enough is enough Bandana. You are building a following that does not support any ghetto youth in any way. Allow us to bring our ghetto youth with talent out.

Bandana has succeeded in throwing dust into the eyes of Ghanaians as the owner of the brand name ‘Shatta Movement while he does not understand the meaning.”