- I wanted to call it 'Alpha' because it resonates
with my personality. It's who I am.
I'm a leader when it comes on to my ShenYengs,
and whatever I want to achieve in life,
I lead first. I set the trends, you feel me?
It doesn't matter if the world is against me,
I'm gonna do what I wanna do because I am the alpha.
I am strong. Being everything that I've endured
up until this day in my life, I know who I am,
I know what I want, I know the strength that it took for me
to get here. I just feel like it was the perfect name.
My creative process has been a bit all over the place,
to be honest. It's my first album,
so I've just been like - I want it to be so perfect,
I'm drawing from different, different sides of me
and trying to experiment, as well.
I feel like this album is also an experiment
because it's my first, you just don't know
what to expect when you're gonna put out your first body
of work.
So I'm being truly honest when I say I've grasped
from different, different sides of me
just to formulate this album.
Hey, MTV News. It's your girl Shenseea
and here are my top five musical influences.
My first musical influence would be Michael Jackson.
I feel like he is the very first person I listened to
that made me say, "I want to become a popstar."
He's just so cool, he sounds so cool,
and he sounds like he loves what he does.
I feel like he's the first one that made an imprint on me.
Yes, I think about "Remember the Time."
I love that song so much.
I love almost every Michael Jackson song,
but "Remember the Time," the video, I watch that video a lot.
The whole Egyptian concept.
I love that music video, love it.
My next musical influence would be Rihanna.
She is a complete queen, and she has shown me
that continue doing your thing, don't care what nobody say.
I've never seen Rihanna came down off her seat
to address nobody.
'Cause regardless of what anybody says,
she just keeps on doing it, and that's why I feel
like people label her, like, as a savage. She just don't care.
I haven't met her yet, but I feel like, before meeting her,
I'm satisfied for now because she has videoed herself
listening to my song and just vibing to it.
And it does something to me because I grew up listening
to her music and now she's listening mine, that's crazy.
My third musical influence would be Whitney Houston.
I love Whitney Houston because she has so much soul
and so much range.
I feel like she's one of the greatest vocalists
ever to walk this Earth, you feel me?
She's just amazing.
Like, every song for Whitney slaps, man. She has motivated me
to wanna scream at the mic and still sound good.
I just know that my auntie used to blast her in that house
almost day and night, everyday.
So it was inevitable for her not to be an influence of mine,
to be honest.
Another musical influence of mine is Vybz Kartel.
I started listening to Vybz Kartel when I was in high school.
Reason being because I was from a Christian home,
so I could not play dancehall in my home,
I could not listen to dancehall in my home.
I had - You will hear it on the streets,
but I'm not tuning into it because one,
I'm a kid just growing up, and two, I did not hear it a lot.
I started listening when I started going to high school. [Laughs]
You know, just taking the bus by myself now,
being social with other peers,
and you know, they're unruly in high school.
So it's like, it's the period between a child and an adult,
so it's like adolescence.
So you - That's where you experience and find out
so much things that you didn't know as a child,
and you're looking forward to as an adult.
Vybz Kartel is truly raunchy, but I admire that
because he expresses himself freely. As an artist,
he has motivated me to speak about anything
that I wanna speak about.
It is true artistry, you feel me?
So - And his lyrics are crazy.
He makes me wanna think about lyrics and be like,
"Yo, how can I say this in a way where people
would be surprised?" or "How can I come up with this punchline
that nobody has ever heard before?"
He has inspired my lyricism.
And finally, my last musical influence is Nicki Minaj.
I've been watching Nicki from the start of her career,
you know, and it's just truly amazing,
the imprint that she has put on the industry.
'Cause I feel like now, all the female artists coming up,
she has truly inspired them.
And I feel like, when you have good inspirations,
it motivates great music to come.
That's how good music lives on because you have people
who can inspire timeless music.
I feel like Nicki Minaj has done that.
Especially as a female, when it comes down to her image,
how she carried herself, boom, she's mine.
I won't say she's the first that ever did,
when it comes on to, like, image and being bold
and all of that, but in my years, Nicki Minaj did it for me.
I would say my top three from her, oh it's a lot.
Let me start from the early days,
I would say "Your Love" because I feel like that was,
you know, her very first solo song
that pushed her straight to the charts,
went crazy, that we saw Nicki Minaj as Nicki Minaj.
I love "Right Thru Me."
[Sings] "You see right through me."
And "Starships," and - Listen, I cannot choose. [Laughs]
Because she got different vibes, as well.
Thinking about that right now, she maybe inspired
my music, as well, when it came on to, like,
not doing the same sound all the time.
'Cause she does songs that goes pop or goes commercial,
then she go do songs that goes for the streets, you feel me?
So let's add that to why she's one of my musical influences.
The type of vibe I want my ShenYengs to hear
when they listen my album is the fact that I'm so versatile.
You know, it's like I can go almost anywhere
and it still sounds good.
So that's what I know they will take from it.
They're gonna hear songs in the album that they didn't know
that I could even do.
That's what they're gonna get.
They're gonna be in shock, to be honest.
I hope my fans will learn that it doesn't matter
what anybody say, I'm still gonna do me regardless.
I'm still gonna do the type of music that I wanna do
because I am the creator.
People gravitate towards what they wanna gravitate towards,
but, at the end of the day, it's what I put out.