Shenseea: “I Want To Be An Everybody Artist”
Dancehall sensation Shenseea has joined digital media company Genius in their partnership with Instagram for the Yours to Make campaign where she shared insights into her lyricism, vision, and sound.
The campaign has set its sights on three game-changing young artists: the Blessed Jamaican singer, Tennessee rapper Isaiah Rashad, and Houston-born rapper Don Toliver. To explore the nature of identity, Shenseea, Rashad, and Toliver each created IG Reels based on three topics: lyricism, vision/style, and sound. These prompts offer new insights into each artist’s discography and illustrate the ways in which cultural backgrounds and life experiences influence people today.
In expressing how identity informs her music, Shenseea said that her lyrics most often stem from her own experiences. When she’s going through something in her personal life, the words flow out before she’s even picked a beat. While the singer likes to let emotion drive her songs, she’s still very intentional about her words. For the trailblazing Dancehall artist, there’s nothing more important to her process than pairing a melody everyone can enjoy with a strong message of female empowerment.
“Naturally the way I express myself is always in writing. I like to teach new words [and] I try mix English with my patois – be a teacher to my Shenyengs,” Shenseea said.
“At the end of the day, I want to be an everybody artist. So I want to be an artist that kids can listen to, middle-aged, the older class, everybody,”
Shenseea, real name Chinsea Lee, 25, made the jump from regional sensation to international star. She first made waves in 2016, with the release of her debut single, Jiggle Jiggle. Then came the red-hot Loodi, her 2017 collaboration with Dancehall icon Vybz Kartel.
She has since recorded with the likes of Christina Aguilera, Shaggy, Young Thug, Swae Lee, Major Lazer and most recently Kanye West, which earned her a Grammy nomination.
Shenseea’s debut studio album is slated for release next year, she has already set anticipations in overdrive with the release of Run Run, and Be Good from the still-untitled project.
Her latest song is You’re The One I Love, which has racked over 1.5 million views on YouTube in less than a week.