A SPECIAL J!-ENT FEATURE INTERVIEW SHELLA AN INTRODUCTION TO BLASIAN MUSIC 101 INTERVIEW BY DENNIS A. AMITH PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF BLASIAN MUSIC J!-ENT Celebrating our 15th Year Anniversary
TRF OFFICIAL WEBSITE: http://www.avexnet.or.jp/ trf/ J!-ENT contents 4 J!-ENT s INTERVIEW WITH SHELLA Dennis A. Amith interviews SHELLA previous interviews Visit www.j-entonline.com for the following interviews and articles currently available on J!-ENT. Click on a cover to access a previous article/interview. TRF A SPECIAL J!-ENT 15TH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE BY DENNIS A. AMI T H & H I ROSH I TAGAWA IMAGES (and BEAT FREAK IMAGES) CO URT ESY OF AVEX EN T ERTAI NMEN T I NC. J! - E N T Copyright 2008 by J!-ENT. www.j-entonline.com. All Rights Reserved. All SHELLA images and photography is courtesy of BLASIAN RECORDS
J!-ENT INTERVIEWS SHELLA 4 J!-ENT H awaii. Not only is it a place of palm trees, resorts, killer surf and expensive real estate. Hawaii has been cultivating its share of talent on the pop, R&B and hip hop side. Recently, I have discovered an artist from Hawaii who can truly bust out rhymes with a smooth flow but also add some Nihongo ( Japanese) into her lyrics. Her name is SHELLA (pronounced as sheh-la) and she is bringing her style of music known as Blasian Music to the masses. Shella has made it into the Billboard Top 100 R&B/Hip Hop Charts, performed in Japan and recently released her first EP with a collaboration with DJ Princess Cut (a well-known DJ from Japan for her chop & screw style, now residing in Texas). But for me, what drew me into this rapper, singer and songwriter was of course her music but also learning about her personal background which made her to the artist that she is. Shella was born and raised in Honolulu to an African American father and Japanese mother. At a young age, Shella was DJ ing school events and house parties at the age of 11 and enjoying the life that young children do. But at the age of 12, Shella s father was killed and the tragedy has influenced her to take up music and take those emotions and put it into her music. She eventually began performing as an artist and opening for major acts that have come into Hawaii such as Sean Paul, Stylez P and Lauryn Hill and eventually caught the eyes of record executives. At the age of 15, her talent caught the eyes of the Ruff Ryders and was flown to New York to talk about a record deal. But another tragedy hit home as Shella s mother was murdered in Waikiki. Another tragedy that temporarily derailed the young teens life as she was forced to move to Chicago with her family at the age of 16. After two painful losses and having to put a halt to any talks of a record deal, Shella spent the next few years learning to take her emotions and put it into her music. Through perseverance, Shella began to produce her own music and started incorporating Japanese lyrics to her smooth, competent flow. After high school Shella studied audio engineering and started to focus on her music. And at the age of 18, Shella went to Tokyo and hooked up with DJ Princess Cut and put together her first EP titled Blasian Music presented by DJ Princess Cut and now at work on her debut album. Her story is just incredible and she s fierce, she s talented and most of all, able to take on any challenge. J!-ENT recently had the opportunity to interview Shella in regards to her music, to know a little bit about her and to know more about Blasian Music. J!-ENT: Let s start off with a few easy questions and get to know more about you. When you were younger, was it your dream to be involved with music or did you dream of becoming something else? SHELLA: No, I didn t always want to do music. My father was into playing basketball a lot, so I looked up to him and wanted to be a basketball player. When he died I started getting into music, first DJ ing. Singing and rapping came natural to me and I ve been doing it ever since the age of eleven. Professionally since 16. J!-ENT: If we were to look into your MP3 or CD player right now, what artist or what kind of music would we find you listening to at this moment? SHELLA: Hip Hop, R&B and J-pop and a little bit of rock. Right now, the new Lil Wayne album The Carter III is what I been listening to. Mary J. Blige, Ne-yo, Tamia and R. Kelly always have a place in my MP3 player. J!-ENT: Cool! Now some of our readers are probably curious of what kind of Japanese music you listen to. Who do you enjoy? SHELLA: AI, Zeebra, m-flo, Misia, Dabo. I love that m-flo album Astromatic and The Intergalactic Collection. But the production and singing especially is
J!-ENT INTERVIEWS SHELLA from her. J!-ENT: OK, let s talk about your music. For those hearing or reading about you for the first time, how would you describe your music to the public? SHELLA: I would describe my music as Hip Pop melodic harmony where I marry rap and R&B together and make it flow in my own unique way. J!-ENT: You have Japanese lyrics in your music. For me, that s cool but for others, they ll probably are curious of why the inclusion of Japanese in your music. What made you decided to incorporate Japanese to your lyrics? SHELLA: It was funny because I thought of putting Japanese lyrics into my rhymes when I first started rapping, but I thought it wouldn t make sense to people that didn t speak Japanese. It wasn t until 4 years later that I made my first song with Japanese and every really liked it. It kind of became my niche. So I decided to stick with it and jus do it a little bit here and there (for U.S.) Not too much to throw people off the concept and what I m saying. J!-ENT: I m curious when you perform this song live, because it has Japanese lyrics in parts of the song, do you modify the song when you are performing in front of an American audience? And if not, how often do people come up to you and ask what you were singing? SHELLA: Performing the song has never been a problem. There are only a few Japanese words in that song. Just enough to catch a person s ear and they always ask what language it is! DJ PRINCESS CUT and SHELLA. Image courtesy of BLASIAN MUSIC. where I m trying to go especially with the J-Pop music. For me... Like their songs come back to me and love bug... Its kind of different than American pop and R&B music. Kind of sounds like a 90 s Mariah Carey production or something but I will run with that and try to add my thing on there as I work on my Japanese pop material. More singing. J!-ENT: Who inspired you as a singer/ rapper/songwriter? Was there anyone that you looked up to? SHELLA: I looked up to a lot of artist growing up like TLC, Salt n Pepa, Lady of Rage, Da Brat, Mary J Blige, Tupac, E40. I remember Left eye (of TLC) and Lady of Rage really influencing me as a female artist about the time when I first started. J!-ENT: You are half Japanese and half African-American. You get the best of both worlds but what do you think you inherited from both your mother and your father s side that you will treasure? SHELLA: My Father was a Jazz man so I really think I got my musical interest from him. My mother was really fashionable, strong and most of all she was humble, so I think I inherited the strongest traits J!-ENT: Let s talk about your relation with DJ PRINCESS CUT. How did the two of you hook up and work together musically? SHELLA: We met through mutual friends and had some of the same goals. I ve always been a fan of down South style and to meet a Japanese DJ in that market was a blessing. We are working on a new mix tape called, Life in the Fab Lane which will be coming by the end of this year and an untitled Japanese project. J!-ENT: Let s talk about your album BLASIAN MUSIC. What is Blasian music? J!-ENT 5
J!-ENT INTERVIEWS SHELLA SHELLA: Blasian is a word that I came up with that incorporated the two words: Black & Asian. But it also identifies a slight alter ego to me as an artist. I have this side of me that is fierce and hard when I rap but I also have the sensitive, emotional, softer side of me usually when I sing. So, that makes up tha Blasian which is me and Blasian Music is the style that I embody. Nobody has done Blasian Music yet, I m sure people will try to after me. J!-ENT: Let s talk about your album. The first track Doin My Thang was produced by Pearl City s MO LUV. What was it like to work with MO LUV? SHELLA: Mo Luv was the first producer I ever recorded with in Hawaii when I was like 14, so we work very well together. He sees my ideas without me having to explain too much and we vibe well. Sometimes, we just make a whole song from scratch in no time! Instead of me just picking some of his beats he already made, he can custom make one right there on the spot to any little melody I start humming or something. So, its always great when we work together. J!-ENT: Always like to know some behind the scenes of the creation of a song. So, as a singer/songwriter and producer, I m curious how long it took you to create a track, so we ll use What I Like which was a collaboration with LIL FLIP as an example. How long did it take you to create this song lyrically and musically? SHELLA: That song was not planned or anything. It was so on the spot that me and Flip sat in the car and wrote our verses after I came up with the hook. Then we went to the studio and laid it in like two hours. J!-ENT: There is a track on the album titled Wishin U Were Mine which features you primarily singing. With your music, will future releases primarily be hip-hop based or do you like to mixthings up with vocal tracks? Because that vocal track was pretty tight! SHELLA: I m actually trying to get more into R&B just to explore it. I ve always been melodic even with my raps but I took it a step further and started adding harmonies so it is started to be more R&B. It is inevitable for the people to hear an all R&B side of me but I will never stop rappin. I have this side of me that is fierce and hard when I rap but I also have the sensitive, emotional, softer side of me usually when I sing. So, that makes up tha Blasian which is me and Blasian Music is the style that I embody. J!-ENT: Of the songs from the album, which is your favorite and why? SHELLA: Gorgeous is my favorite song. It always gets people moving in the club and I feel like it is the best intro song to describe me! (Laughing) J!-ENT: Of the songs on the album, which track was the most challenging to create and why? SHELLA: The most challenging track to create was, Come n Holla because I was trying to find a balance between English and Japanese that wouldn t be too much for either side. So, it took me the longest in arrangement and writing this song. J!-ENT: I ve read that you studied audio engineering and even received a pro tools operators license. Knowing that, I would imagine that you probably are very picky or very selective when it comes to the audio quality of your music. Are you? SHELLA: Oh yes! I watch over the engineer s shoulder when someone else is mixing my music and if the engineer doesn t look like he knows what he is doing, I will be quick to take his seat and do it myself. I also try to learn from Engineers who are way more advanced than me. J!-ENT: One thing that I read about your profile is about the major tragedies that has happened in your life and for many people, losing their parents at a young age can definitely set them off on a destructive path or to use those emotions and turn it to something positive. You took your experiences and turned those emotions towards your music. You have a song on your latest album titled Palm Trees N Murda, was that one of the songs you created during that turbulent time of your life? SHELLA: That was the only track that I produced myself that s on the album and I made the track a couple years before I started recording the album so I can definitely say that I made the track during hard times. I didn t write the song until later and even then I put changes in the beat to match the melody of the song. J!-ENT: Blasian Music landed on the Billboard top 100 R&B/Hip Hop album charts for 3 consecutive weeks. The fact that it did land on Billboard, what was that like for you? SHELLA: Very unexpected. It just proves that if you make good music, the people will get behind it. J!-ENT: You currently live in Hawaii, isn t that very challenging to have a music career so far from the mainland? SHELLA: No, I ve always traveled a lot coming from Hawaii. As a kid I would go to the mainland and Japan every Summer, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year and Spring Break. So, I never had island fever. J!-ENT: I ve interviewed several celebrities who are hapa and I ve talked with them about the challenges of being half Asian and half White or half Black especially for those who have a music career in Japan or Asia. But for you, how has the crossover to Japan been for you? SHELLA: I ve always been in touch with both sides since I was two, my first time to Japan. So, it really was never a crossover for me. And coming from Hawaii, where there is a strong Japanese and Asian influence, it really wasn t too different. J!-ENT: I read that when you were 11, you DJ d at school events and house parties. I used to spin back in the day and had Rodney O., Stevie B., Eric B and Rakim, NWA but curious to find out what kind of music you were playing back then as a DJ? 6 J!-ENT
INTERVIEW AVAILABLE NOW ON J!-ENT ハルカリ Just Doing It the HALCALI Way! BY DENNIS A. AMITH PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF 2007 Epic Records Japan, Inc. J!-ENT Celebrating our 15th Year Anniversary
DJ PRINCESS CUT and SHELLA. Image courtesy of BLASIAN MUSIC. SHELLA: I was playing mostly house and dance music back then. Me and my friends used to rave and I threw a couple of rave parties and we did the glow stick tricks and all. I don t remember the names of the house songs but I played dance songs like, Tootsie Roll, 69 Boys, Luke, Q-Tip and I have a really tight mix routine I did with TLC s No Scrubs, and the guys remix No Pigeons.. I would chop back and forth and it was tight.! J!-ENT: Let s get to learn more about you outside of music. When you are not performing or working on music, what do you enjoy doing in your free time? SHELLA: This Independent music grind doesn t allow any free time, for real. It seems like anytime I get a day where I m not recording myself or someone else, I end up doing secretary work for myself or spending five hours on MySpace checking the weeks messages that I never have time to check because I don t have enough people running errands and doing little jobs. So, if there is anyone that wants to get in with my campaign they are definitely needed... Hit me up on MySpace.com/therealshella. J!-ENT: You live in Hawaii, so let s say that if we got to hang out with Shella 8 J!-ENT for a day. Where in Hawaii or in your area would you take me and why? SHELLA: I would have to take you to all my spot in Honolulu mainly Diamond Head (extinct volcano) for the view. Ala Moana and Pearl Ridge malls to shop. The North Shore for the waves and tan and Waikiki at night to kick it! J!-ENT: If you had one word to describe yourself, what word would that be and why? SHELLA: Gorgeous because its my single.! J!-ENT: In every interview, we have a word play. We give you one word, you give us your definition of those words. We ll start out with: a. LOVE SHELLA: Listening to a finished song b. SUCCESS SHELLA: No. 1 on the charts c. HAPPINESS SHELLA: Being in the booth. d. SEX SHELLA: Listening to a good beat e. BLASIAN SHELLA: Shella J!-ENT: Are you currently working on any new projects at this moment and any plans for a new album anytime soon? SHELLA: Yeah, Life in the Fab Lane mix tape is coming soon. Check for it to get a taste of what my debut album will sound like. Other than that I m just recording for the rest of the year and working on the new single now and shopping for bigger distribution. Look for me in 09! J!-ENT: What final words would you like to leave with fans who support you and your music? SHELLA: If you haven t got a Blasian Music EP yet, you need to buy it on itunes. Just search: BLASIAN MUSIC. Shella will be the only one to pop up. Check me out on myspace.com/therealshella. I respond to everybody and I appreciate all comments and feedback. For more information on Shella, please visit her website at: http://www.myspace.com/therealshella
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J!-ENT J!-ENT, a Japanese and Asian entertainment and pop culture website celebrating its 15th Year Anniversary in 2008. www.j-entonline.com Dennis A. Amith, is also known to Japanese and Asian pop culture fans as KNDY. Dennis is the owner of the multidisciplinary communications and design business, nt2099 media and entertainment and founder of Japanese and Asian entertainment and pop culture website, J!-ENT. Graduating from California State University, Fresno with an educational background in mass communications and journalism, Dennis A. Amith has interviewed and featured many talents and industry professionals in the United States, Europe and Asia and is recognized for promoting the entertainment and pop culture of different countries to an International audience. He is currently residing in California. CURRENTLY AVAILABLE NOW ON J!-ENT J!-ENT photographer Nergene Arquelada covers hip-hop artist ZEEBRA and the many artist performances from Tokyo Night 2008 in Long Beach, California.
A J!-ENT SPECIAL FEATURE ARTICLE - AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 2008 GLAY VERB TOUR 2008 IN U.S. - AUGUST 15, 2008 HOUSE OF BLUES - SUNSET STRIP, WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA BY WYNNE IP IMAGES COURTESY OF IWANE AI and EMI MUSIC JAPAN J!-ENT Celebrating our 15th Year Anniversary