Stylin’ Like Shanell: Week 1
Welcome to Stylin’ Like Shanell, where the average girl can add a little gypsy to her style! This Shanellakasnlfans presentation is brought to you by our incredible helper and new team member Mercedes. Every week we’re bringing a brand new look and bunch of other fun surprises so stay tuned! Check out week 1’s look below:
Shanell At The Free Weezy Concert!
Check out the video and pictures below!
[Video] URBAN FEMALE ENTERTAINMENT: TIME 2 SHINE Artist Showcase
Fast forward to the 5 minute mark! Also special thanks to Mercedes!
Gypsies how fly did the girls club look!
[Video] Shanell & D.Woods At The MTTM Kick Off Party
Pretty Girl Swag…
Skip to the 5 minute mark!
Shanell Attends Married To The Mobs ATL Kick-Off
More photos can be found here!
Shanell Calls Into Gypsy Talk Radio
So today we had out first gypsy talk radio show, where all the team Shanell members get to reunite and chat about all things gypsy! Lucky for us we had a very special guest call in during our first show! Skip to the 16:50 minute mark for Shanell’s appearance!
Shouts to the ladies of team shanell for setting this up! And if you wanna join in the fun make sure you start your very own Team Shanell page to rep your city!
Fan Spotlight!
So every once in awhile, we like to show case some of Shanell’s amazing fans and what their doing to support her! This time we bring you Shanell’s fan myspace, created by Mercedes! Be sure you guys check out the page for a bunch of pictures and updates. Click here to check it out!
Also if you’re interested in having your featured email us @ shanellakasnlfans@gmail.com
Photos: Shanell At Trae Day 2010
How hot our those shoes?!
Shanell Interviews With Obscure Sound
by Colleen Seidel
If Lil’ Wayne tells a burgeoning artist to stop giving their songs to other people and start recording them for their own sake, that is advice you would do best to heed.
Shanell, aka SNL, can testify as such. First a former backup dancer for NeYo, then a steady collaborator with Lil’ Wayne, and now a female vocalist for Young Money, the songstress stands ready and willing to break out on her own with her first release, Shut Up ‘N Listen. She says it was a chat with Lil’ Wayne in a hotel room one night that served as the early catalyst for her decision.
“I was a dancer on a tour that he was a part of,” Shanell remembers. “I was in my hotel room recording music, trying to grow as a writer, and Lil’ Wayne was like ‘Why are you giving your songs to other people?’”
“I was so in love with being a dancer, I didn’t take it seriously at the time,” she adds. “But I stayed in touch with Lil’ Wayne and we worked on Tha Carter III together, and that’s when I decided to become a recording artist.”
A year and a half removed from that decision, Shanell is now promoting her mixtape, Shut Up ‘N Listen. Featuring many of the heavyweights she has written for in the past, the recording is heavy on the beats and high on Shanell’s vocal stylings. The eclectic mix of R&B, rap, hip-hop, dance and even a little techno on the album was intentional, the Atlanta-based singer insists.
“Hair Down My Back” pulses with the low bass dub sounds of a underground dance club while the singer goes into her higher octaves for the verses. The chorus – “I got hair down my back, b***ch, hair down my back” – while not the most original of lyrics is certainly an entertaining way to express the female bravado Shanell possesses throughout the entire album. Not to mention, it’s catchy as hell. “Otherside” offers a twist of sorts for Shanell in that it features two of the biggest names in the hip-hop industry, the aforementioned Mr. Wayne and Ne-Yo, on the track instead of the other way around.
A seasoned veteran at collaborating with other artists on their work, Shanell admittedly says it was a struggle sometimes to focus on her own work. “You think too hard when you’re doing something for yourself,” she explains. “It flows freer and a lot easier when you’re creating for other people. The pressure of having a successful album… it makes the process a little harder.” But so far, the reception to her solo work has been positive. “I haven’t seen or heard anything negative, which is just amazing to me,” she says.
One of the best tracks on the album, “Tell Me”, highlights a trend seen throughout the entire record: remakes of older songs. This one, featuring Young Money’s Jae Millz, is a remake of the 1995 track from Groove Theory, and it stays true to the slower groove of the original song while simultaneously revamping it for the 21st Century. “It wasn’t even my idea,” Shanell confesses about the song. “It was Jae Millz’s. He sent it to me first and said ‘It would be really cool to remake this.’ I just kept the first verse and the essence of the way it was sung, but I played around with the bridge. That was more my character coming out.”
With the album released back in April – at Shanell’s own tongue-in-cheek “baby shower” playing off rumors of the singer being pregnant – Shanell has done nothing but promoting, touring and playing her material. “The fun part is putting together the shows and the choreography,” she admits, spoken like a true dancer and entertainer. “But it’s a lot, a lot of work… just running around, having to tell different people the same things over and over.”
Fingers crossed, soon enough those same people will come running to her.
Video: Shanell Appears In Brisco & Lil Wayne’s “On The Wall”
Check out the video above!! Shout out to Felicia!
