The anticipation and public commentary for Shenseea’s debut tempered on “Shenseea stick to your roots”. You could hear the collective sigh of relief when Jamaicans heard that it was a reggae album and that the full album wasn’t as bad as the four singles released.
Shenseea, a young woman from Jamaica is part of a new cohort of artists, mostly female attempting to graduate from local dominance and cross over to America during the social media era.
In recent times the main requirement for embarking on a global music career would be a massive hit, or at least a buzzing hit to enter each market. Patra had Romantic Call, Shaggy had Boombastic which first blew up in the UK, then later It Wasn’t Me which took on a life of its own worldwide after a Hawaiian DJ played a bootlegged version on the radio. Then there was Sean Paul with Gimme Di Light which premiered on 106 and Park and positioned him for the much desired US market.
Not so with Shenseea, the 25 year old’s rise comes without a Billboard chart topper. She has toured the world, has two collaborations with Kanye West and is nominated for a grammy award all before her debut album.
Her 7 million social media followers draw unfounded Rihanna comparisons. The marketing rollout for Alpha started with “Run Run“, then a few weeks later “Be Good” dropped. Those songs were ignored by the US market and rightly didn’t make the album.
Things took a turn when Lick with Meghan Thee Stallion dropped but not for all the right reasons. The promotion of Lick was overshadowed by Deserve It which she performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. With a new management, and record label invested, Shenseea got interview placements with MTV and Apple Music.
Thats enough for her to proselytize that she has no aspirations to become a ‘Dancehall Queen’ and had always planned to “give dancehall 5 years”, and then conquer other genres.
On the pre-order Alpha was marked ad a Hip Hop/R&B album then a genre switch happened days before to reggae.
With the fragmented marketing rollout and hyperboles, Rich Immigrants/Interscope records release 14 tracks, backed by 6 features (Tyga appears twice), top billboard producers like Scott Storch and London On The Track but only few songs stand out.
Henkel Glue, produced by Chimney records/Banks and Ranks featuring “The Doctor” Beenie Man injects life into the Alpha. Then there is Lying If I Call It Love featuring Sean Paul which should have been the lead single. Hangover is where Shenseea took the most artistic risks. “It’s gonna hurt when we break up/But good nights are worth the hangover”, She convincingly performs with needle moving vocals.
Where Alpha shines most is with Sun Comes Up. It’s a fantastic song with depth that saves us from the monotony of the other surface tracks, rounded off with a heart warming mother-son interaction at the end.
Still, the album leaves many unanswered questions about her focus as an artist and where she is taking her career.
Even after salacious sexual innuendos, the vanity checks and image requirements for entering the monolithic American music industry, Alpha misses the mark of aligning Shenseea’s name and talent with major hip hop and pop stars who get top 40 radio spins, sell large amounts of records and win awards.
Rating: 3/5
