Meet Shenseea, The Jamaican Dancehall Artist Roasted By 21 Savage In Leaked Call With Meek Mill
Small up yuhself, 21 Savage — yuh waan flap a wing!
Instagram You gotta love rappers: always the first ones to wild out, but when the women do the same thing they do, they get trashed. Sheesh. Anyway, this Jamaican dancehall artist was mentioned in a leaked call between 21 Savage and Meek Mill, wherein this talented lady was reduced to being called an insulting name. Who is Shenseea?
A brief primer on dancehall music: it originated in Jamaica in the 1970s and was, in a way, a "dance-able" version to the more mellow (and revolutionary) reggae music. When the 1980s brought about electronic instruments, the rhythms sped up intensely. Today's dancehall music has a more "ragga" sound than its original incarnation, and it's punctuated by lyrics in Jamaican patois (rather than in British standard English). As a result, the average American can't understand what, specifically, dancehall artists are saying when they say it — they just know they love to dance to it. (Don't worry, we're here to translate when necessary.)
Shenseea is a rising star in this dancehall community. Let's look at what we know about her.
1. She was mentioned in a leaked call between 21 Savage and Meek Mill.
Not that either one of these rappers has any room to talk trash about anybody, least of all a talented woman, but Urban Islandz transcripted a copy of some leaked audio between the two rappers. Apparently, the duo was playing Call of Duty when 21 Savage remarked about "that Jamaican hoe," Shenseea. Meek Mill mentioned that thousands of people could hear the conversation between the two, and that's when 21 Savage went on to imply that he was messing around with the dancehall princess.
Yeah. Okay sir.
2. Shenseea has a boyfriend.
According to a different report for Urban Islandz, Shenseea has a boyfriend of sorts. The outlet reports that, on her birthday, her manager Romeich sent her a heartfelt message that felt like it was a lot more than "just friends." Folks in the dancehall community have long suspected that the duo were an item, even though they denied it, but Shenseea once referred to Romeich as "her man" while onstage in Jamaica.
He's cute, and he's not out here talking reckless about her, so we humbly submit that he's the far better choice than 21 Savage.
3. Her latest single has reached No. 2 on the Billboard reggae charts, and she couldn't be happier.
Shenseea sat down with Teen Vogue shortly after her latest single — with the oft-imitated "rat-tat-tat-tat!" opener — hit No. 2 on the Billboard reggae charts. "At the moment, I’m trying to infuse my dancehall genre with pop music, but at the same time I cannot do it straight. So what I’m trying to do is ... I still have my tone of voice and everything, but just try to change a majority of the lines, of the words, and how I express certain things that I want to say, just so you guys can understand even more," she told the outlet, promising to remain true to her dancehall roots no matter how successful she became.
4. Shenseea has toured with a lot of high-profile artists.
In the short time since she's been climbing the charts, Shenseea has been touring with a lot of high-profile artists to get the word of her music out there. Vibe reports that her first "big tour" was with Sean Paul, but she's also done work with the likes of Christina Aguilera and Tyga, as well.
5. She's been labeled 'the fastest-rising star in dancehall.'
Billboard has noted that few dancehall artists have climbed to the top of the charts as fast as Shenseea has, and for that reason, she's been dubbed 'the fastest-rising star in dancehall.' And, believe it or not, she got her start singing Whitney Houston songs in church!
6. Shenseea's music was even featured in a movie soundtrack!
The movie Sprinter featured Shenseea's track, "Major Moves," which R&B legend Ne-Yo guest-starred on. And director Storm Saulter told BASHY that there were good reasons for choosing Shenseea for the soundtrack. "The artists that we worked with and the records on this soundtrack are inspired by the duality of our lead character Akeem’s life — The Roots Reggae Rasta youth living and training in the countryside and the Dancehall youth running wild with his older brother through the Kingston city streets," he said.
So just so we're clear: Shenseea is worth a lot more than to be reduced to a misogynist slur from rappers.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and more. She is also the author of The Uprising series. For more information about Bernadette Giacomazzo, click here.