Dancehall princess Shenseea was in a transparent mood with her twitter fans on Sunday when she answered questions using the hashtag #ASKSHENSEEA. The DJ who has not released any music since 2023 promised fans that not only is new music on the way but a new album is almost finish.
Real soon, gearing up to get a music video done. https://t.co/a7Wq08ZKKg
— Shenseea (@SHENYENG) January 29, 2023
In another tweet she said about a new video, “I’m on the last lap of completion so real soon.”
The Jiggle Boss also says “Mentally, i’m better than last year. Physically i need to do better lmao”
Mentally, i'm better than last year. Physically i need to do better lmao https://t.co/ZjZ9hPSPdE
— Shenseea (@SHENYENG) January 29, 2023
Shenseea also gave kudos to embattled fashion mogul Ye whom she worked with in the past and earned her first two Billboard chart songs “Pure Souls and Ok. Ok. Pt. 2
“I love him, such a mastermind and inspiration. Yes we’ll do something again, God’s willing,” she tweeted response to “How was your experience working with Ye & would you collab again if you could?”
Dancehall’s hit girl called out to West to help her with her career last year July, three months after her album Alpha dropped. This singer tweeted the request, “I want @kanyewest to mentor my creative directions” followed by the Face Exhaling emoji depicting she is exhausted.
Shenseea had always professed her love for the former billionaire music producer and designer ever since she worked with him and says he “treats her like real family.”
In March the Interscope artist told L.A. Leakers’ host, Justin Credible and DJ Sourmilk , “I love Kanye, you know just seeing him on social media and then being around him is totally different, as with everybody but he is really in a good way.” she said. “He is definitely a true living inspiration, like I love Kanye. The love that he shows me, the way that he embraces me, pulls me in and make me feel like yo I am a part of the team, I love that. He treats me like real family.”
She also said she likes Ye’s working process and that she almost didn’t make the album.
“I was there watching people like ‘yow, he didn’t even put me on the album’ and I was like, ‘trust me, I almost didn’t make the album either,’” she said.
She found out that the two tracks, OK OK Pt 2 which peaked at No. 12 and Pure Souls, which peaked at No. 52 on the Billboard charts made the cut when the album was released.
“I love it because it’s so unpredictable but I don’t like it because I don’t even know,” she continued. “And then I ended up on two? I never saw that coming at all.”
Shenseea’s contribution to West’s Donda album earned her a Grammy nomination for Album Of The Year at the 64th Annual Awards. She did not show up to the awards due to in her words “scheduling conflict,” and neither did Kanye who was reportedly banned from the ceremony. West recent lost a slew of partnerships including his lucrative billion dollar deal with Adidas and GAP due to comments he made online about jewish people.
Regarding a music video for the song “Deserve It”, Shenseea flat out stated that the video directors did not do a good job so it will not be released.
“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
In a now deleted tweet, Shenseea also blames her management team headed by Salxo for not releasing physical copies of Alpha.
Under Sal’s management Shenseea performed at several Rolling Loud Festivals, got nominated for Album Of The Year at the Grammys, collaborated with Megan Thee Stallion, 21 Savage, Offset and will be on Coachella this year April. Alpha is also the most consumed dancehall album in 2022 with 60,000 units sold as of December.
However, over the last year Shenseea has experienced several mishaps in her career including industry backlash for the direction of the salacious music video Lick, and although the album got a lot of television promotions and international artists features, ‘Alpha’ only sold 845 pure copies and 4900 total unit consumption in its first week according to Luminate. Lick is also the subject of an ongoing lawsuit which is now headed for court in front of a jury if the demand of Universal Music Group and Shensea are met.
The original complaint was filed in the Southern District of New York on March 3, 2022, according to documents obtained by World Music Views, by Anastas Hackett aka Pupa Nas-T, who produced and co-wrote Work in 1999 with Harkness Taitt.
Shenseea released “Lick” featuring Megan Thee Stallion on January 21, 2022 with a sexual charged themed music video on YouTube. The song currently has 17 million views.
Traveling Man Productions, LLC along with Hackett, are listed as the plaintiffs, and are being represented by NY attorney Courtney K. Davy. They are seeking to recover US$10 million in damages, plus profits accrued from Lick, and attorney costs.
The 9-page complaint names Chinsea Linda Lee (Shenseea), Interscope Records, the UK-based Atal Music Limited and their employee Alexandre Escolier as defendants. It said that Atal Music and Escolier were contracted by Shenseea’s representatives to clear the sample of Work for use in the Lick collab with Megan Thee Stallion.
Hackett withheld his consent for the use of his song because he found the terms offered by the defendants to be inadequate according to the complaint.
In commenting on the lawsuit Shenseea’s co-manager Romeich Major told WMV in a text message that he was unaware of an impending legal issue and that: “Dat coulda neva happen cause a big label like dat woulda clear everything.” (That could never be the case because a major label like that would clear everything)
Over the years Interscope Records has had its fair amount of copyright lawsuits dating back to 1997 when Trauma Records filed a $100 million suit against the company and its distributor on contentions about who owned the rights to the rock group No Doubt..
Trauma owners Rob Kahane and Paul Palmer eventually walked away from the joint venture with Interscope two years early and $3 million richer–but without the top-selling act No Doubt.
In 2002 Dr. Dre and Interscope and parent company Universal were sued by an Indian film and music company for more than $500 million over the use of an unlicensed sample on “Addictive,” the first single from Truth Hurts’ debut LP, Truthfully Speaking.”
Universal Music Group was issued a cease-and-desist letter prior to the suit, which the label conglomerate ignored according to lawyers representing Seregama India Ltd.
Their copyright manager also asked UMG to stop using the sample because the lyrics of “Addictive,” in which sexually explicit references were made were potentially offensive to some Indians’ cultural and religious sensibilities.
A federal judge in Los Angeles eventually ruled that “Addictive” must be removed from shelves unless Bollywood composer Bappi Lahiri’s name is added to the credits. He likened the unauthorized sampling of the song by Dr. Dre and Interscope to “cultural imperialism.” The case was settled in 2003.
Sal is the co-founder of XO Record label and also manages The Weeknd, Ty Dolla $ign, M.I.A., Brandy, Bebe Rexha, French Montana, and Diddy.
