Shenseea aims to mix ‘old dancehall with modern sound’ on cross-over journey
Fresh off the Coachella stage and armed with a new single, dancehall artiste Shenseea says she intends to continue her cross-over journey even as she aims to mix “old dancehall with the modern sound.”
The Shenyeng leader was speaking to Billboard News in a recent interview where she revealed that keeping the ‘grit’ from the authentic dancehall sound is what she hopes to do with her new music.
“I wanna bring the kick of the beat and the bass. When you hear that kick, it makes you move and that’s what I’m infusing with my music now when I’m mixing it with like Pop and any other genre. I want the kick and the bass to remain the same. You will feel that dancehall gritty sound,” she told Billboard’s Tetris Kelly.
Shenseea who recently released the single, Curious, said that while she has transitioned into her ‘pop-star era’, she wants to use her creativity to craft music that bridges the gap between old school dancehall and a modern sound.
“I wanted to bring that nostalgic feeling with that old school dancehall mixed with the modern sound so that’s what I did (with Curious) and it worked,” she said. “A lot of people know about the culture is like ‘yow we haven’t heard this sound in a long time’ and that’s exactly what we were aiming for. I wanted us to bridge that gap between dancehall where it was and now.”
Having landed collaborations with international heavyweights including Meg Thee Stallion, Gwen Stefani, Chris Brown, 21 Savage, Charlie Puth and others, Shenseea said she feels overjoyed that entertainers who are ‘ahead of the game’ believe in what she brings to the table.
“I loved the fact that they just believed in me. It gave me motivation to just keep going. I believe in myself but seeing other people believe in me, other people who are ahead of the game, it feels amazing,” she said.
Shenseea recently carved her name into musical history when she became a part of only a handful of local artistes to perform at the internationally acclaimed music festival, Coachella. She joined the likes of Skip Marley, Chronixx, Lee Scratch Perry, Damian ‘Jr Gong’ Marley, Stephen Marley and Koffee as Jamaican artistes to perform at the event.
