“Shenseea don’t leave you roots, do not leave your roots, because its your roots got you there”, is the warning from legendary dancehall DJs Alric And Boyd at an event held at the US Embassy today dubbed “Star Spangled Sit Down” hosted by media personality Debbie Bissoon.
Bissoon posed the question to guests Alric and Boyd: “Shenseea wants to step out of her (root) genre, she has taken on a very pop sound..do you think that will work in her favor?
To which the 30 year radio DJ veteran Boyd drew examples from Lady Saw who did her fair share of collabs at the height of her career.
“Lady Saw when she did her collabs with everybody else she was still dancehall, Bounty Killer same thing, Beenie Man same thing, Shaggy same thing, so you are saying you are not dancehall anymore? Who are you influenced by at this point? Who is influencing you to make that decision? If you not Jamaican anymore you can just shed you ‘Jamaicaness’ like that and say ‘ok I am not Jamaican, I am not dancehall?”
His DJ partner Alric then chimed in, “I am glad you mentioned Lady Saw because when you talk about collaborations and going far outside of your root genre nobody has done it further than Lady Saw. She went rock.
She had a tune with No Doubt which was an award winning tune, Grammy winning tune and she never leave her roots.”
Although her recent releases are outside of the genre, Shenseea has tweeted in the past that she has no intentions of leaving the genre and is just “pursuing a dream she has always had”
I'm glad the Live is still on social media where we all can research and see for ourselves that I DID NOT say my time in Dancehall has come to an end; A live specifically stating "I'll be pursuing a dream I've always wanted but I can never leave Dancehall behind" https://t.co/gokn3M7oTx
— Shenseea (@SHENYENG) January 28, 2022
The party playing duo have under their belts production credits on Jill Scott’s Love to Love, Sly and Robbie for the Cool Runnings soundtrack, Sean Paul’s Dutty Rock along with hits from Beenie Man and Elephant Man.
Also agreeing with Alric and Boyd’s sentiments on Shenseea’s career moves is , writer for Billboard Magazine who joined the conversation via zoom.
“Shenseea has such a unique identity in this American music landscape, why on earth would you want to give that up? Renounce that, diminish that to be an imitation of something that’s already out there in abundance…I would just love to see her capitalize on who she is and make the best music she can as who she is”, She said.
“Its almost like she is dumbing down her skills for this acceptance that may never come and its like why would you want to dumb down yout talents, shine as brightly as you can, part of that shining is to be authentic and be who you are, again experiment, a little bit here and here sure, like any artist wants to do that should do it but i feel like sombody is in her ear telling her you have to do this to break bigger and there is no guaratee by doing this that you gonna break anyway”, she continued.
The critique of the dancehall princess comes on the heels of her four most recent singles leading up to debut album Alpha which is scheduled for March 11.
Two of the singles “Run Run” and “Lick” featuring grammy winning rapper Megan Thee Stallion topped the Jamaican World Music Views YouTube Charts but have not the well needed US airplay charts. Lick debuted at number 20 on the Billboard bubbling under 100 and R U that featuring 21 Savage which was released last week has not given her any chart attention.
The Rebel singer is scheduled to make her US TV debut on the Jimmy Kimmel show on March 3. She is nominated for album of the year grammy for her part on Kanye West’s Donda album.
