By Patience Loum
Gambian Rapper Attack has dominated the 2022 Wah Sah Halat Music Awards (WMA) which took place on Saturday 26th November 2022, taking home Four Awards as last year’s winner decided to snub the star-studded event. The two rappers are currently engaged in a Beef (fierce competition) over who is the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) in Gambian Hip Hop.
ST released a statement on his Facebook Page explaining that he will not be taking part in the WMA 2022 Awards “due to the Police incident that followed the last awards on allegations of a fan’s conduct which ST or his entourage had nothing to do with”. The Rapper ST further distanced himself from the award by noting that they “didn’t give the rights to be on any of the promotional materials as well. This decision has been communicated to the organisers days ago. Wishing all the nominees a wonderful night”.
A few days before the event, the organizers of the award committee held a press conference. During the conversations, the brains behind the awards, Sally Njie commonly known as ‘Sister Njie’ said she realised an odd movement from the musician during the nominations process.
“We didn’t realise earlier on that he {ST] wasn’t tagged in our social media posts on nominations so we tried checking out his page only to realise he blocked us,” said Sister Njie. She highlighted that her team had written to his management, notifying them of the nominations and got only an “OK” from them.
She went on to add that she even tried calling ST to no avail.
The WMA Organiser explained that “this is not a game of interest. It’s not about ST or Sister Njie, this is more than that. We said to recognize talents and that’s exactly what we’ll do regardless of whether or not we think an artist wants to be here or not”. In her view “no artist has ever been denied an award”.
FOUR WMAs For Attack
- WMA- COLLABO OF THE YEAR 2021 – The song BANDI ft Jizzle emerged as the best collaboration for the year 2021.
- SONG OF THE YEAR ‘BANDI’ – The song by Attack was a hit song in the year 2021.
- WMA PEOPLE’S CHOICE – According to the Committee, this category is entirely based on the people’s votes.
- ARTISTE OF THE YEAR – The most anticipated award of the night goes to Attack for the year 2021.
EXEMPLARY WMAs
The WMA has been recognizing and awarding exemplary performances in the music scene ranging from songs, videos and individuals working in the music entertainment.
This year’s edition looks at talents from the year 2021 and not 2022 and contains 18 categories in total including the ‘honorary award of the year’.
- WMA LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD – Abdel Kabir Lie’Ngom was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award for his strong stance in the music scene since the early 70s. His music has survived decades and continues to inspire a lot. Lie’Ngom has been a pillar in Gambian music.
- WMA HUMANITARIAN AWARD – Lovette Jallow won the award for the Humanitarian of the year 2021. She has written books and has done quite tremendous work, especially in aiding to repatriate Gambians who were stranded in Lebanon.
- WMA HONORARY AWARD 2022 – The Late Mam Tamsir Njie was given the honorary award. He is a legend in the Gambia, especially in the musical sector. He worked hard to promote Gambian music and culture and also child education.
