Romeich Major Recalls How Shenseea Rose From Bottle Service To Dancehall Stardom
Shenseea‘s journey to becoming one of the top Dancehall artists is nothing short of inspiring, according to her manager, Romeich Major.
In a recent interview on ‘The Cut with Wayne ‘Marshall’ Mitchell,’ Major recalled the then 19-year-old, arriving for her first day of work as a bottle service girl with a broken sandal and a three-month-old son at home to care for on her own.
“Shen come a the office and har slippers bus and pop and me say ‘wha happen to you man? you no hot brown girl? You must have two man, man, mek dem go buy you a slippers’ and she say ‘no, me have a son that is 3-months-old and a me alone a tek care a him’ and she look pon mi straight and say ‘this is my only slippers, I don’t have no more slippers,’” he shared.
He continued: “..so she come and me see this pretty likkle brown girl and white squall a kill har and she look hungry and har mouth dry, no exaggeration. And mi ask her if she hungry and she say yeah and mi send go buy a food and me and har reason and mi send go buy a slippers fi har and a dehso she start work.”
Over the next six months, Major said Shenseea’s work ethic soon became apparent. He recounted how impressed he was by her hustle, particularly when she outsold every other bottle service girl at Dream Weekend, a popular Jamaican music festival.
“A watch me watch har work, when she went to Dream Weekend and worked, she sold more bottles than wah ten girls sell together, me remember Moet did give har an incentive of $60,000 cause she sold the most bottles. Me remember the Dream man dem a say we love har, always put har on this,” he said.
Music wasn’t initially on the radar as Major had reservations about entering the music industry again after previous experiences. It wasn’t until a member of his team sent him a video of Shenseea singing and deejaying that he recognized her hidden talent.
“One day one a the youth dem who deh round me a deejay weh turn Ding road manager now Scrappy, Scrappy send me a video a har a sing and a deejay so mi look pon har now and is like mi a say tha pretty girl yah wid tha big dutty man voice yah weh big so, dem time deh mi say mi done wid music inno cause member dem time deh mi did have Versi fuss but young artist memba this unno haffi jus push and fight but unnu haffi find a 9 to 5 when unnu a do music because it rough,” he shared.
Their first attempt at recording in the studio did not go as planned.
“When me go inna studio wid the lady, mi go to har and talk to har and tell har say mi wah do some work but she say boi everybody try do work wid me but mi just never compatible wid nobody cause dem start look me or whatever after and it just never work but mi say mi no business with that,” he explained.
“So mi gi har one riddim and she go sing and mi say no, deejay! You get a riddim so she deejay and she write some lyrics and mi say low it, gwaan back go do promo, this naw go work out. The lady bawl and go home and reach back a studio before me and change up the song and record it inna different vocals, different voice, different everything.”
This tenacity resulted in the creation of Jiggle Jiggle, Shenseea’s debut song, released in 2016.
Her controversial breakout hit Loodi, with Dancehall artist Vybz Kartel, was released less than two months later. A string of successful singles followed, including Nothing Dem Nuh Have Ova Mi, ShengYeng Anthem, Hard Drive with Rvssian and Konshens, Love I Got For You, and Tie Me Up.
In 2019, she signed with Interscope Records in partnership with Rvssian’s Rich Immigrants and released her biggest hit, Blessed, later that year.
In 2021, Shenseea earned her first Grammy Award nomination and her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 for her contributions to Kanye West’s Donda album. That year, she also became the first woman to win the MOBO Award for Best Reggae Act.
Her first two studio albums, Alpha (2022) and Never Gets Late Here (2024), were released under Interscope.
Watch the full episode of ‘The Cut’ below.