Shenseea earned her first gold single in the United States.
“Pure Souls” is now certified Gold in the United States, Urban Islandz learned on Friday. This means the single has now sold over 500,000 units in the United States. The Kanye West single features Shenseea and Roddy Ricch and appears on Ye’s 2021 album Donda. The song was also one of several from the album, which was nominated for a Grammy award at the 64th annual Grammys.
This is also a historic moment for Shenseea. Once the Recording Industry Association of America, RIAA, updates the song’s status, Shenseea will be the first female Jamaican artist in the last decade to sell Gold in the U.S.
Shenseea was featured on two singles on Kanye West’s Donda album, “OK OK Pt 2” and “Pure Souls.” The body of work is a 27-track project with features from Jay-Z, DaBaby, Francis and the Lights, Playboi Carti, Lil Baby, The Weeknd, Travis Scott, Lil Durk, Lil Yachty, Kid Cudi, Don Toliver, Ariana Grande, Chris Brown, the late Pop Smoke, Roddy Ricch and others.
Shenseea also famously joined Ye at an album listening party in Chicago, where she performed the song on stage with Roddy Ricch and controversial artist Marilyn Manson who has production credits on the track.
In an Angie Martinez interview last year, Shenseea spoke about the production and what it was like recording the songs with Kanye West, who she is a fan of.
“Everybody was just so professional. It was nothing crazy like you had to be saying to yourself what am I doing here. It was like I stepped here, it’s time to work, that’s the vibe and he (Ye) is very hardworking,” she said.
She added, “first he lets you do what you do, and then he directs you, he’s a very give-and-take person, he lets the artist express themselves freely,” she said adding that Kanye is a mentor to her and that “he’s one that supports me, I feel like ever since then, he’s been like a mentor to me in certain things, he’s been telling me what I need to do,” she said.
In the meantime, Shenseea recently revealed to fans that she was working on her sophomore album but has not given any more details to fans except to say that the album will be “completely different.”
“I’m happy where I am right now because I feel like I’ve been getting a lot of recognition from international acts, producers, I’m working with,” ShenYeng said. “I’m working on my second album and knowing that I’ve given my first album ‘Alpha’ to the culture, It’s my very first, I had to give back to my culture, the second one is completely different.”
Shenseea also hit the studio with Jamaican producer Rvssian and recording duo Stargate last year and recently shared a clip of herself in the studio telling fans that she is cooking.
Shenseea was named on Billboard’s list of top 15 artists to watch in 2022, and she went on to release her debut album and several songs with artists like Megan Thee Stallion, Masego, and others and has even caught the eye of Diddy.
