“Ah Shenseea!”
This vibrant young lady is my artist of the moment. Shenseea really had me clapping my hands when hearing her new chune “Streets Nuh Right”.
I was actually in Jamaica a few years ago [2016] when I first heard of the name Shenseea. I caught a taxi from downtown Kingston heading to Washing Avenue and had an amazing conversation with the taxi driver. He was about mid-age, but we vibed when he heard me singing all the songs on the radio, because he was shocked that a foreigner knew all the Yardie chunes. He took me by surprise knowing a lot of the trending music as well. So I asked about new artist on the scene and the first name that popped out of his mouth was Shenseea. He said (I’ll keep it in English for y’all to understand) “She’s the hot new thing. Beautiful young lady with a very positive vibe. She niceeeeeee. All the girls are hating on her because she’s the hot girl on the come up.” Once he mentioned the song “Loodi” with Vybz Kartel , instantaneously I knew of the song, but I had not seen the video at this point. I only heard it on a dancehall mixtape in Fort Lauderdale. So since that conversation, I decided to look into Shenseea, an I’ve been on her music since.
Chinsea Lee [October 1st, 1996] aka Shenseea, is a female dancehall artist who was born in Jamaica. Shenseea is mixed with Korean and African[African refers to the overall diaspora and not just the African nationality]. She had a passion for music since she was young. She use to sing in the choir at her church when she was younger. From a young age, Shenseea knew that she wanted to be an international artist. After she graduated high school [Mona High School], she decided to attend Exed Community College and major in Entertainment Management (I wish I would’ve known this was a major, this is my first time seeing that). Due to hardships, Shenseea didn’t get a chance to finish college (Don’t worry girl, a lot of us didn’t finish), but this didn’t stop her from pursuing her career. Her real motivation was her son [Raj]. She did whatever she had to do to make it for him. On her venture into the music world, she crossed paths with Romeich Major, a promoter in Jamaica. He took to her vibes and hired her as one of his main promoter girls. After that, he signed her as his first artist. Shenseea has been on the scene since. She originally popped off with her track “Jiggle Jiggle” and she really took off when she dropped Loodi with the infamous World Boss, Vybz Kartel.
The reason I chose her for artist of the moment is because she is singing about real issues in Jamaica. This isn’t the typical wine, twerk, repetitive music that’s being played on radio. It takes a lot of bravery for an artist these days to sing about realness. To bring awareness to what’s going on within her country is something I applaud. I’m always for standing within your truth even if it means you have to stand alone. For her to step outside of the box and utilize her talents and platform to speak her truth, she deserves some roses. We need to hear more artist talking about these types of issues. Music is a very powerful thing and can touch so many people in so many ways. So I had to give Shenseea the spot this week.
Here are 3 song picks by Shenseea that I vibe to:
–SOLO