Dancehall star Shenseea made her Billboard debut with two tracks from her Donda album features.
Kanye West’s Donda album was released on August 29, 2021 with an extensive, but hidden features list which included Shenseea and Reggae legend Buju Banton on a Lauryn Hill sample. Shenseea’s first featured song on the album, Pure Souls with Roddy Rich, debuted at No. 52 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Speaking with representatives from MRC Data (Now Luminate)—the company that tracks weekly streaming and sales data for music in the US for the Billboard charts—it was revealed that OK OK and OK OK pt2 were merged as one song for chart purposes and it came it at no. 12.
In the same week Shenseea also made her debut on Spotify’s Global Chart and in the US. In the U.S. Pure Souls charted at no. 22 and “OK OK pt 2” charted at no. 51. Globally, Pure Souls charted at no. 50 and OK OK pt 2 peaked at 108. She was the first Jamaican artist to make the weekly chart in 5 years.
She is credited as “C. Lee” on both songs as a writer.
Shenseea was the first female Jamaican Dancehall artist to hit the Hot 100 in 17 years, following Miss Thing’s entry with Beenie Man on the Dave Kelly-written Dude in 2004. The feat places the Trick Or Treat singer among other Dancehall women like Lady Saw and Patra who have hit the chart.
What’s more, Shenseea joins an even more elite group of Dancehall artists—which includes Sean Paul and Shaggy—to have two Billboard Hot 100 entries in the same week.
At the time she commented that she isn’t move by her achievement, “Guys, I really don’t aspire to be the first of everything, it’s so annoying. The first of this, the first of that…who the f–k cares?” she told her fans in her Instagram Stories today. “I just wanna make my money, make my music, make my Shenyengs happy…my ultimate life goal is to be so wealthy that I will never go broke again…my kids will never go broke again.”
“Like I’m a be legendary regardless, first of this, first of that…. that sh-t don’t matter,” Shenseea added.
She has not hit the Hot 100 chart since then event though she has released an album and several international collabs over the last 12 months.
The comments are a departure from what she shared after her July 2021 performance at Rolling Loud, where she was the “first” Jamaican artist to grace that hip-hop platform’s stage. “Thank you for having me, the first Artiste from Jamaica to ever to get booked for this platform,” Shenseea wrote at the time.
Shenseea’s debut album Alpha released via Rich Immigrants/Interscope Records on March 11, 2022, Alpha sold 4,900units total from sales and streaming in the United States, according to data provided to World Music Views from Billboard’s sales tracker, Luminate. This included 800 copies in pure album sales.
Her first single from the album “Blessed” featuring Tyga is certified Gold in Canada for selling 40,000 units in that country.
Speaking about that achievement to World Music Views she says, “Thank you to God, my shenyengz and my team. I am blessed.”
Blessed was produced by Rvssian and co-written by Shenseea, Theron Thomas, Sam Sumser, Sean Small, and Stephen ‘Di Genius’ McGregor and the music video has surpassed 60 million views on YouTube.
It also peaked at No. 33 on the Rhythmic Audience chart and No. 37 on the Rhythmic Airplay chart.
