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The BoomBox

Young Money's Shanell Begins Recording Debut

July 12th 2010 10:00AM


She may be Lil Wayne's favorite punked-out badass, but Young Money's resident chanteuse, Shanell Woodgett -- aka SnL, is ready to introduce the world to the sexier side of the squad. The 26-year-old Atlanta native, known for rocking a signature chain connecting a pierced ear to her nose ring, made her grand entrance to the mainstream world as the featured guest on Wayne's top-20 single, 'Prom Queen,' in early 2009.

Now, after dropping her viral mixtape 'Shut Up N Listen' in April, the buttery-voiced songstress has officially begun work on her untitled debut, which she hopes to have in stores by spring or summer of 2011. "I started to work on some stuff," she told The BoomBox, having recently wrapped up a tour with her Young Money associates a few months back. "It's a slow process. I don't want to rush anything. I think creativity has no time limitation on it, so I'm taking my time and I'm coming up with some great, great ideas."

'Shut Up N Listen' was only a taste of Shanell's eclecticism, touting her remixes of originals by Ryan Leslie, Simian Mobile Disco, Groove Theory and Eve. Now that the mixtape has slithered across the internet and clocked upwards of two million downloads, Shanell plans on using her debut to bring her sound to the next level, focusing the album more on rhythm by building each track with a percussive foundation.

"I'm a rhythmic person because I am a dancer," she explains. "And I feel before I sit down and actually listen to words, so I know I want it to be kind of a rhythmic album or a feel-good album."

While Shanell has worked with everyone from Melanie Fiona to Lil Wayne to Ludacris, she plans on keeping the collaborations to a relative minimum on the LP, noting
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