Rich Immigrants CEO Rvssian has confirmed that he and dancehall artist Shenseea, who is signed to his label, are not on speaking terms for over two years.
In a tell-all interview on the Let’s Be Honest Podcast, the Krippy Kush producer was asked to list the artists under his tutelage currently. He listed a few acts under both his labels, Head Concussion and Rich Immigrants, but left off Shenseea, whom he signed to the latter in partnership with Interscope Records in 2019. Host Jai Frais then inquired about how he left off the “Cant Anymore” singer, to which he said, “Oh, sorry, I forgot her.”
He then went on to confirm, “Yeah, Shenseea is signed to me.”
Frais then asked the Clarks producer about the direction of Shensea’s career since she has been signed to the international partnership and whether she is a flop or capitalizing on the international opportunities available to her, which include several pop collaborations that have not gained the traction fitting an international artist.
“I think she is capitalizing on the opportunity in terms of doing it,” Rvssian said. Adding, “I just feel like maybe the choice of music is not the best of what the people want to hear from her. Sometimes the people’s vision and the artist’s vision are different. She might feel like this is what she wants to do, but the people are not accepting her for that.”
Rvssian explained that the audience is the ultimate decision-maker where music is concerned. “At the end of the day, who has the leverage chooses what they want to put out, and the people are not accepting. It’s people consuming the music, so her pop stuff they don’t want to hear as much as her dancehall?”
As for allegations of Shenseea being a sell-out to American culture, he said that is related to her comments disparaging the culture. “I think they have her as a sell-out because of the comment that she said, which they never too liked about Caribbean people. And then saying she gave dancehall four years, people think they turned her back on them.”
It was then that he confirmed that he does not have a cordial relationship with the former Romeich Entertainment artist. “She signed to me, to be real, me and Shenseea don’t talk in two years, but she signed to me, but me nah go control nobody, they can do what them want because I don’t want anybody ever say I hold them back or me stifle them career.”
“I am not going to tell someone don’t talk up; I can advise you, I can’t force you, during these comments I wasn’t around through.”
Despite Shenseea, born Chinseea Lee, unfollowing her label boss on Instagram, he remains one of her 6.5 million followers.
Rvssian said he is not scared by the situation and just sees it as a learning process, and he is willing to sign more artists.
“Nuff artists I help; some of them are grateful and some are ungrateful; it’s just human…me nuh wish nuh bad although me and her nuh talk, I still approve everything, all of these expensive videos, I still approved, I never stopped a song, just that at this moment in time we not seeing eye to eye,” he said.
The 26-year-old artist, who was the top-selling female dancehall artist in 2022, criticized her label for not releasing physical copies of her debut album “Alpha” a year ago. Since joining Rich Immigrants/Interscope, Shenseea faced several challenges, including backlash for the music video “Lick” featuring Megan Thee Stallion, for which Shen eventually settled a 10 million dollar lawsuit for copyright infringement.
“Lick” released as as ingle from the album from the album triggered a lawsuit that was eventually settled only seven months ago, filed by Anastas Hackett, co-producer of the 1999 song “Work.” Shenseea’s co-manager Romeich initially expressed unawareness to WMV, stating, “Dat coulda neva happen cause a big label like dat woulda clear everything.” Notably, Rvssian’s Rich Immigrants wasn’t implicated in any lawsuits
Despite international promotions and features, “Alpha” only sold 845 pure copies and 4,900 total album equivalent units in its first week but went on to sell 60,000 units in its first year.
She also shelved the music video for “Deserve It,” and flat out stated that the video directors didn’t deliver on her expectations.
“Directors fxcked it up so I decided not to put it out,” she continued “It was so bad.”
Directors fxcked it up so I decided not to put it out. It was so bad https://t.co/8FmujF8Wao
— Shenseea (@SHENYENG) January 29, 2023
Watch “Lets Be Honest Podcast” with Rvssian here.
