Okraku-Mantey in an interview on Starr FM revered Jupitar’s consistency in churning out good dancehall tunes for which reason he chose the ‘Dancehall General’ over Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy.
‘Surprisingly, Shatta Wale calls himself a dancehall king, but go through his songs. For the past two to three years, the young man has not been doing dancehall. So it becomes difficult, but if you ask me, I think I like Jupitar. Stonebwoy is doing well but he is not a hard core dancehall artiste, he is not doing dancehall, he’s doing reggae. With brands, if you dilute it, it becomes difficult telling people where you belong. Jupitar has been consistent where he is,’ Okraku-Mantey noted.
A highly elated Jupitar told GhanaWeb that not only is Okraku-Mantey’s judgement “pure and clean” but also shows that the critic understands music to the core.
According to him, he is the only artiste doing dancehall in Ghana because other acts in their quest to make it commercial, fuse the genre with others.
“If you judge me, you can tell I am doing hundred percent dancehall. They try to make it look more commercial and name it ‘Afro-dancehall’. There is nothing like ‘Afro-dancehall’. Can I say we have ‘Afro-R&B’? Dancehall is dancehall. Whatever Mark Okraku-Mantey said, I’m not surprised. He knows music… I really appreciate it, I’m privileged and humbled,” he said.
Asked if the endorsement puts pressure on him, Jupitar replied in the negative.
“It actually puts more attention on me. He is rather throwing a challenge to people who misunderstood what dancehall really is so they listen to what I’m doing and understand clearly that I can match any dancehall artiste in Jamaica or worldwide” he noted.
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