Dancehall star Shenseea earned her first certified Gold single in the U.S. on Tuesday August 15, 2023 when her Kanye West (Ye) collaboration Pure Souls reached the milestone. The certification was issued by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) for selling more than 500,000 equivalent units in that country.
Ye’s Donda album was released on August 29, 2021 with the hidden feature. Pure Souls with Roddy Rich, debuted at No. 52 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the same week, the song gave Shenseea her debut on Spotify’s Global Chart at no. 22. She was the first Jamaican artist to make the weekly chart in 5 years.
Shenseea, real name Chinseea Lee is credited as “C. Lee” as a writer on the track.
The Interscope artist 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 latest achievement places the Trick Or Treat singer among other Dancehall women like Lady Saw and Patra who have sold Gold in the U.S.
What’s more, Shenseea, age 24 at the time, joined 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 after Ok Ok Pt. 2 from the Donda album also charted.
At the time she commented that she isn’t moved 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 fuck cares?” she told her fans in her Instagram Stories. “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 imma be legendary regardless, first of this, first of that shit doesn’t matter,” Shenseea added.
The comments were 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 4,900 units 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.
The album finished the year as the most successful dancehall album released that year with over 60,000 units. Alpha has surpassed 100,000,000 streams on Spotify.
Her first single from the album, “Blessed” featuring Tyga is certified Gold in Canada for selling 40,000 units in that country.
Shenseea and Kanye
Last July, Shenseea made a call out to Kanye to help her with her career after she encountered several lawsuits and low first week sales for her album. This singer tweeted, “I want @kanyewest to mentor my creative directions” followed by the Face Exhaling emoji depicting she is exhausted.
Shenseea has always professed her love for the Yeezy music producer and designer ever since she worked with him and says he “treats her like real family.”
In March last year, the Jiggle Boss 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 Kanye West’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.
“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.”
The vocal contributions to West’s “Donda” album earned Shenseea 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.
