No chronicling of Jamaican popular music would be accurate without including dancehall β a genre that originated in the late 70s in Kingston as a shift from reggae into physical dance halls: spaces for large numbers of the working-class population to hear music via portable sound systems, that would evolve and change with technology and artistic needs in the genre.
The early class of dancehall stars includes legends such as Yellowman and the oft-sampled Sister Nancy ; the musical style would expand from a niche to a national staple by the s, crossing over to US markets courtesy of Jamaican diasporas, and ultimately taking the charts by storm: Beenie Man, Buju Banton, Lady Saw, and Sean Paul all became household names to anyone who watched MTV.
The distinctive opening trills of the song β Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat, ah β have become lovingly mimicked by fans. If the initial reception is any harbinger of things to come, Shenseea truly is blessed and quickly rising to the occasion. 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.
The language hurdle is a delicate balance that she has taken great pains to identify in her music. As we spoke while she was preparing for BET Awards weekend, she remained undeterred. Sheensea sees herself as apart of how the new crossover dancehall sound should be defined from an authentic Jamaican perspective, as opposed to the various white artists that have entered the space in the American markets.
Having left college for financial reasons, she gained an early following on Facebook, singing original songs and covers with a heavy reggae inflection akin to Tanya Stephens , before veering into a more appealing dancehall sound.
