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"I Am Not Pregnant, But This Is My Baby"
This past Wednesday I was given the opportunity to meet Shanell, princess of Young Money. She has always been a star in her own right. Sitting down with her, the first thing I noticed was that she is incredibly petite but her confidence and beauty make up for it. I was given a 5 minute span to talk to her which went by so quickly. Shanelle started off as a back up dancer for the likes of Ne-Yo when she met Lil Wayne.
"I remember just really pushing my music and then he heard it and asked me what do I want to do write or sing? and I said sing."
When I asked why she chose singer over writer, her response stuck with me.
"One never really went without the other- I'll always do both it will just be for me mainly."
That seemed to be the turning point in her career.
Then transforming to songwriter for stars like Kelis, Danity Kane and Beyonce. "Actually, the first group I ever worked for was Blaque, Left Eye's group." So you know she's been around for a while. She wasn't really star struck when songwriting for the artists she worked with because she understood what needed to be done. She didn't give herself time to be star struck. Then she started laughing when she remembered how starstruck she really was when she met Beyonce.
"There were moments when I was just sitting there like WOW, but Beyonce was like c'mon c'mon...write write! And I was like OK, I'm doing it!"
To finally arrive as an artist, her newest mixtape 'Shut Up and Listen' (which is what her aka SnL stands for) was released last week. Being one of the first to hear it, I have to say it's a whole new sound to the ear. It reminds me of something like Gwen Stefani meets Monica. At the listening session I attended, I could see how much she worked on the songs. She was jamming and grooving to each and every one. A couple of times I saw her getting lost in her sound, which made me really appreciate the music more.
We talked about her musical influences, which caught me off guard.
"Im a true 80's baby everything from Cyndi Lauper, Madonna to Lil Kim and Wu Tang." So you can see why her sound is so unique. She also pointed out that Young Money is her true inspriation now. "Now the people that I work with, they're all inspirational. To see them sit there and work and create their music, that's what inspires me." You can really see what Lil Wayne has done. He doesn't have a bunch of talented people at each others throat-he created a family between them. Throughout the mixtape you hear Young Money, from Jae Millz, Gudda Gudda and Shanell's real brother Lil Twist. They're all showing love to their sister Shanell.
But of course with fame comes the fans and the haters. I asked her how she handles her new found fame and she started laughing.
"It takes me off guard sometimes. I'll be outside with my hair tucked under a cap and some sweats-I'm not no diva diva- and someone will be like that's Shanelle! And I'll be like no no that's not me! I'm like I look a mess!-I'm really down to earth so I love it."
It's true. Just sitting with her, I felt like I knew her my whole life. Then I asked her if there was any rumor that she wanted to dispell and she said she is NOT pregnant.
"Im so tired of people saying that sh*t!." She's thick-not preggo, but she does have a witty sense of humor. "I decided to name my album release 'the baby shower' to really mess with the media. I'm not lying my mixtape is my baby." She had a lot of media sources thinking it was her real baby shower. Total genius.
I had to talk about her fashion sense because she is very daring in all that she wears! "My music influences my fashion sense as much as my fashion sense influences my music- they balance each other out," which makes complete sense. You can see Shanell has the ability to go very far just by being so different, or as she calls it being 'to the left.'
Starting her own genre 'rock and b' she's in her own lane and moving fast. All the best of luck to her and her career!
This past Wednesday I was given the opportunity to meet Shanell, princess of Young Money. She has always been a star in her own right. Sitting down with her, the first thing I noticed was that she is incredibly petite but her confidence and beauty make up for it. I was given a 5 minute span to talk to her which went by so quickly. Shanelle started off as a back up dancer for the likes of Ne-Yo when she met Lil Wayne.
"I remember just really pushing my music and then he heard it and asked me what do I want to do write or sing? and I said sing."
When I asked why she chose singer over writer, her response stuck with me.
"One never really went without the other- I'll always do both it will just be for me mainly."
That seemed to be the turning point in her career.
Then transforming to songwriter for stars like Kelis, Danity Kane and Beyonce. "Actually, the first group I ever worked for was Blaque, Left Eye's group." So you know she's been around for a while. She wasn't really star struck when songwriting for the artists she worked with because she understood what needed to be done. She didn't give herself time to be star struck. Then she started laughing when she remembered how starstruck she really was when she met Beyonce.
"There were moments when I was just sitting there like WOW, but Beyonce was like c'mon c'mon...write write! And I was like OK, I'm doing it!"
To finally arrive as an artist, her newest mixtape 'Shut Up and Listen' (which is what her aka SnL stands for) was released last week. Being one of the first to hear it, I have to say it's a whole new sound to the ear. It reminds me of something like Gwen Stefani meets Monica. At the listening session I attended, I could see how much she worked on the songs. She was jamming and grooving to each and every one. A couple of times I saw her getting lost in her sound, which made me really appreciate the music more.
We talked about her musical influences, which caught me off guard.
"Im a true 80's baby everything from Cyndi Lauper, Madonna to Lil Kim and Wu Tang." So you can see why her sound is so unique. She also pointed out that Young Money is her true inspriation now. "Now the people that I work with, they're all inspirational. To see them sit there and work and create their music, that's what inspires me." You can really see what Lil Wayne has done. He doesn't have a bunch of talented people at each others throat-he created a family between them. Throughout the mixtape you hear Young Money, from Jae Millz, Gudda Gudda and Shanell's real brother Lil Twist. They're all showing love to their sister Shanell.
But of course with fame comes the fans and the haters. I asked her how she handles her new found fame and she started laughing.
"It takes me off guard sometimes. I'll be outside with my hair tucked under a cap and some sweats-I'm not no diva diva- and someone will be like that's Shanelle! And I'll be like no no that's not me! I'm like I look a mess!-I'm really down to earth so I love it."
It's true. Just sitting with her, I felt like I knew her my whole life. Then I asked her if there was any rumor that she wanted to dispell and she said she is NOT pregnant.
"Im so tired of people saying that sh*t!." She's thick-not preggo, but she does have a witty sense of humor. "I decided to name my album release 'the baby shower' to really mess with the media. I'm not lying my mixtape is my baby." She had a lot of media sources thinking it was her real baby shower. Total genius.
I had to talk about her fashion sense because she is very daring in all that she wears! "My music influences my fashion sense as much as my fashion sense influences my music- they balance each other out," which makes complete sense. You can see Shanell has the ability to go very far just by being so different, or as she calls it being 'to the left.'
Starting her own genre 'rock and b' she's in her own lane and moving fast. All the best of luck to her and her career!
LOL that shit is really inaccurate on some points but eh, not that serious.
LOG ON AND GET INTO IT!!!! 
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