Shenseea got her entire career planned out down to when she plans to retire from music.
One of the things that Romeich Major has always remarked about Jamaican singer Shenseea is her indomitable work ethic. It seems that is second only to her ambition and dreams for herself. It’s likely what gives her the inspiration to keep pushing in her quest to have her music and the island of Jamaica represented on the global stage.
Speaking with W Magazine, the “Lick” singer revealed some of her plans for her career. For one thing, she hopes that by the time she is 35-years-old she can ease off the music scene and get into acting. It’s not the first time that she’s expressed that she wants more out of her professional career.
The sultry songstress said that she felt like she’d already done a lot for dancehall, including achieving some of her personal goals like taking her career to the international level. That’s something she wanted to accomplish in the first five years of her career, and in the next five, she hopes to have sold out arenas. In the five years following that, she’s looking forward to probably retiring at the top of her game.
“By 35, I should be wrapping up music a little bit and doing some acting. That’s why I can’t allow anybody to get in the way of my vision, because I’m traveling on time. I’ll retire around 40—I want to relax!” she added.
The “Blessed” singer also admitted that she was not exposed to dancehall from an early age and grew up in a pretty religiously strict house. She fell in love with dancehall when she started traveling for secondary school. During this time, she discovered her own style of delivery, which she described as rap.
Even with the dancehall influence, her dream was always to be a global pop star, which raised eyebrows when she was growing up mainly because Jamaicas are more known to be reggae or dancehall artists. With her latest set of contributions, it’s clear that she has stuck to her original dream as she is becoming a sort of pop star through her unique use of beats in dancehall.
When it comes to dancehall, Shenseea maintains her respect for those who have flown the Jamaican flag around the world. One of the veterans in the genre that she looks up to is Sean Paul, and that’s because she believes that no matter how high you ascend in the music biz, you should never forget where you came from.
That’s one of the reasons that she ensured her debut album, Alpha, featured some of the well-known veterans in dancehall.
“It was important for me to put the OGs on my album, because they have been doing it long before me. Sean Paul gave me strength when he put me in a song with him in the early, early stages of my career. I never forgot that. As for Beenie Man, he has proven that he’s definitely the king of dancehall. He has a different energy that nobody else has,” she added.
Even as she paid homage to the OGs of dancehall, she made sure to keep her latest body of work current. She revealed how she connected with the artists featured on her album, including 21 Savage and Megan Thee Stallion.
The “Bad Habit” singer shared that most times when she hooks up with artists, it’s through DMs. In Megan Thee Stallion’s case, she met her at an award show, and the two had good chemistry. The day after, she messaged her the idea for “Lick,” and the rest is history.
That track stirred up some controversy in Jamaica as many viewed it as extremely lewd though the North American listeners seemed to enjoy the vibe. Shenseea said she’s okay with that because the song achieved what it was created for, and that was to get people talking about her music.
In addition, Shenseea feels confident that she should be allowed to embrace her sexuality and said she had been putting out sexually themed songs ever since she first emerged on the scene.
“I want to show my booty sometimes. I want to show the little top of the girls sometimes. It’s my body. Regardless of what you say about me, I already know who I am; I already know what I’m about. I’m an artist,” she continued.
Despite her explicit lyrics, she also said she is still connected to her faith. She said that she still reads her Bible, prays, and fasts. Shenseea is set on reaching for the stars, and it seems her work ethic combined with her aspirations are just the right combination to take her to the top.
