Shenseea says she welcomes negative reactions to her new music.
In the quest to become an internationally recognized artist in the modern-day game, you are going to have to raise eyebrows. In doing so, many artists end up facing lots of negative feedback, especially since social media has made it so easy for not just fans but critics to reach artists as well.
Very few can watch their career thrive under such microscopic scrutiny, but for Shenseea, the negativity acts as a catalyst. The sultry songstress has been on the rise in dancehall for the last few years and is well known for presenting the full package. She can sing perform and is easy on the eyes for many.
With her manager, Romeich Major, she’s been able to rise through the ranks of a highly competitive genre on an island where everyone seems to hold some musical talent. Despite being in a male-dominated genre, she could carve out a special space in dancehall in Jamaica which fans know is no easy feat.
While many would have been satisfied with that, Shenseea decided to let her talent shine through for the world to see. She has been slowly and skillfully penetrating the American market and turning heads as she does it. Her spot in the limelight came soon after she started making those moves, and many got a chance to see just how brave she was with her track “Lick,” which features Meagan Thee Stallion.
The song drew the ire of some more conservative thinkers and praise from more liberal folks. Either way, since it was uploaded to YouTube about a month ago, it already has well over nine million views. What’s even more interesting is how it split fans and opened up a world of negative criticism for her. Something that must mean she’s doing something right as this is what usually happens with well-established American artists.
To get a glimpse of how much it got people talking, the video has attracted more than 200,000 comments on YouTube. It’s safe to say there’s a buzz.
There were comments like these: “If the goal is to become mainstream Shenseea needs to come a lot harder because at this point, everything she does is a first impression for most people. If I didn’t already know how talented she is and this were my introduction to her, I’d never give her music a second thought.”
“When I first heard Shenseea, she was a breath of fresh of air. Much needed in today’s music. This video and lyrics proves once again the music industry dictates what they want to be said and heard and not about one’s own unique talent that helps you separate from the rest and you stand out skillfully better. This is NOT Shenseea. Her skills is a 1000 times better than this trash.”
Even though there were a lot more positive comments encouraging her, the fact remained that a lot of people, especially in dancehall, felt she had digressed too much from her style. However, the American listeners seemed to welcome her raunchy style.
To reach the type of popularity that Shenseea has in so short a time, she must have already developed a thick skin because there were no hot-headed remarks from her admonishing her critics, but rather she moved on and went back to the studio focusing on her first album Alpha.
Following an interview with Hotnewhiphop, we can confirm that that negativity fired at her was actually used as fuel to keep going until she dominates.
She was specifically asked about the reactions to “Lick,” to which she explained that she enjoyed
the negative comments because, in her view, those types of comments usually reach more people.
“So, the more bad I get on my song, the further people get to see it, the longer it’s in people’s eyes because they just won’t forget it. But, at the end of the day, who’s name is being commented on? Shenseea. You feel me?” she explained further.
The “Blessed” singer admitted that she listens to the feedback as it also helps her to know what’s up and what next to do in the future. For this particular track, she was well aware of the risk she was taking.
It’s also a process she explained, and understanding the feedback is a good marker of how well or not a track is doing.
“If there’s way more bad than good, then you know,” she explain. “Okay, we need to go back to the drawing board, it was a little bit overdone.”
“Because you do want good and bad. Always. The bad is going to let you know how to do better, and the good is just always going to cheer you on to motivate you to do better,” she added.
