David Kamara x Shatta Wale– Follow Wanna (Track Review)

Written by Pat Moran

David Kamara’s career got an unexpected boost when the then-struggling Sierra Leonean-Canadian musician/producer was asked by a man on the street for a dollar. Kamara gladly coughed up $5. The recipient of this kindness was TikToker Zachery Dereniowski who gifted Kamara $2,000 while encouraging his millions of followers to check out Kamara’s music.

A year later, Kamara continues to pay it forward with “Follow Wanna,” a paean to positivity and connection. As Kamara’s flanged vocal spins out from a playful tangle of bright electric piano and pert polyrhythmic percussion, his rippling flow references everything from the stars in the sky to Fred Flintstone’s signature cry of “Yabba Dabba Doo.” 

Just as his lyrics entwine disparate cultural touchstones, Kamara’s backing track mixes a mélange of Afrobeat, hip hop and indie-pop with a soupcon of resonant piano accents that play like percussive dancehall beats.

Surfing on swells of synth strings, Ghanaian reggae-dancehall artist Charles Nii Armah Mensah Jr., who performs and composes as Shatta Wale, slides surreptitiously into the track. Wale’s gruff vocal dominates for a moment, before dovetailing gracefully into a joyous chorus.