J!-ENT Interviews SHELLA by Dennis A. Amith

A S P E C I A L J ! - E N T F E AT U R E I N T E R V I E W
SHELLA
AN INTRODUCTION TO
BLASIAN MUSIC 101
I NT ERVI EW BY DENNIS A. AMI T H
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF BLASIAN MUSIC
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INTERVIEW WITH SHELLA
J!-ENT’s Dennis A. Amith interviews SHELLA
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J!-ENT INTERVIEWS
SHELLA
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 mu4 J!-ENT
sic.
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’.
6 J!-ENT
“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?
I N T E R V I E W A VA I L A B L E N O W O N J ! - E N T
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 9
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.
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