Shea Rose sings rock, soul, and hip hop with artistic integrity

Shea Rose just graduated from Berklee College Of Music earlier this year, and shortly after that she released her second recording, a downloadable mix tape called Little Warrior. Rose’s album cover captures the eye with a nude pose and far out hairstyle. She captures the ear with her special blend of rock, soul, and hip hop music.

Rose had finished a 25 minute set at a fundraise the night before this interview. Held at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Boston, she helped raise money for Christopher’s Haven, a home for children when cancer hits close to home That kind of community support is part of Rose’s rep. The singer is widely known for her community outreach.

Rose has been on the scene for about two years now. Networking at Berklee is where it all started for Rose. Before college, she really didn‘t have a huge background in music.

“At the time I entered Berklee, the school didn’t have auditions,” she said. “It was basically a paper application with an essay and also references. Definitely, the vocalist and musician that I am now were completely transformed from when I entered Berklee. But that’s the beauty of the college. They accept people from so many areas and expertise of music, both people who are prodigies and then folks who are just starting out like myself.”

In her online videos Rose can be seen fronting a band and or rapping and singing to a synthesized beat. The different genres are really just tools on one belt Rose wears.

“The rock came from just my interest in blues and soul and I think rock music came out of these genres of music and the performing of the rock genre, like the Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin of kind of laying your emotions out. That really spoke to me in a different way than the R&B vocalists of today. That’s just what I connected to, the really raw emotion. Bob Dylan, not necessarily the most amazing vocalist, but the people who really reach into their souls and told the story. The hip hop, again, I see there’s a really strong connection of just telling the story, writing about your story, the whole poetry aspect. I used to write poetry before. I really don’t feel there’s too much difference between the genres, actually. When I think about it more deeply, I feel like they all kind of exist where you’re looking at a good performance or songwriter or musician or artist, you’re looking to connect with humanity and tell the story. I think that exists in all genres.”

Even though the performance of the rock element in artists like Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin made an immediate impression, she digs rapping and singing to a beat and a turntable. “I love it all,” Rose exclaimed. “I love being able to blend all of it together. So, my writing can go from just me in my room with the keyboard and guitar to a producer sending me a beat and also getting into a studio with a band and jamming with a song.”

Rose doesn’t feel there is any trick to welding her genres together. For Rose, it is all just a matter of the artist being honest with themselves and honest with their audiences.

“When the voice and the writing and the artist is true to who they are, I feel like the audience connects to that, and the music supports that,” the singer said. “And that’ just me. Sometimes people will say ‘Oh, you have to pick one’ or ‘it might be confusing if you’re not in this lane only.’” But for me, when the voice and the music and the person is authentic, I believe you can deliver anything. You can open up people’s eyes and ears.”

Rose has been recognized for her talents, especially in a tough business where a lot of doors close. She received one of her biggest affirmations being named in the Cover Girl-Queen Latifah competition called CoverGirl Queen Collection Ignite Your Persona talent search. Queen Latifa dubbed Rose “America’s Next Female Rapper.

“It’s tough business,” Rose said. “You hear a lot of no’s before you hear the yes, and that yes, from Queen Latifah and CoverGirl, that I’m on the right track and that I’m doing the right thing. It inspired me to keep on doing what I’m doing and be true to who I am.”

Berklee professor and world renowned drummer and composer Terri Lyne Carrington discovered Rose at the college and gave the inspiring singer some opportunities to put herself in front of appreciative audiences. Rose got to open, as a student performer, for a women in rock concert that honored black women in rock music.

Cindy Blackman, Nona Hendryx, Felicia Collins, and many others performed. Carrington recruited Rose to participate in her directed study ensemble and she also put Rose’s rendition of “Transformation” by Nona Hendryx on a compilation CD that featured Cassandra Wilson, Sheila E., Dianne Reeves, Esperanza Spaulding and Gretchen Pariato. “To be on that compilation with those women is an honor,” Rose said.

Rose has some interesting videos for her songs “Free Love” and “Light Fades.” “Light Fades” was on a Berklee compilation and “Free Love” was a part of her spring 2010 EP release Rockin’ Rose. “Light Fades,” a moving acoustic rock ballad, is far different from Rose’s hip hop material.

“That was the first song that I wrote on guitar,” she said. “I discovered how rock-blues made me feel inside. The guitar is really the instrument that carries in a lot of that music. People like Jeff Buckley and Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake, I just gravitated to that sound, which came out of me doing all this investigation of rock music and alternative music. I just decided to pick up guitar, and when I did, the first three chords I learned were A, C, and D. That was the first song that came out.”

Rose’s Rockin Rose release got her a nomination from the New England Urban Music Awards last year. “Boston has been so good to me. New England has been so good to me,” she said. “It’s always great to be nominated and recognized amongst my peers who are doing the same thing. It’s another affirmation from the community and from people that I respect and want to work with.”

Rose’s new release Little Warrior, which she calls her “mix tape,” is actually a free download available on her website. The first single off of it playing in the Boson market is a self-celebratory rap number called “I’m The Shit.”

It was inspired a year and half ago when she was chosen for the CoverGirl/Queen Latifah competition. “When I started the mix tape project Little Warrior, it was more of an exercise for me because I had never really dove into that style of writing before. Although again, it’s about the voice and the content and the story. My brother and I wrote that song together with some friends that attended Berklee.”

Rose’s new songs “Missionary Position,” “Jungle Love,” and “Go So Hard” all indicate a hip hop direction this time around . Rose’s master plan going into the studio was just record what she liked and what felt good. For the cover art of Little Warrior she is posed nude with her hair done in funky artistic spikes. Rose was inspired by Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu.

“I just love her work,” Rose said. “A lot of her work deals with women in collage. I like the texture of her work, the colors of her work. I was also inspired by a lot of the work that Keith Haring did with Grace Jones. So what I came up with on the Little Warrior album cover is really symbolic. I’m a petite person, so often people meet me and I’m five-two. You have to be a warrior. You have to really understand the elements around you, the people that you’re dealing with, your own elements, and how to navigate through the world and what can sometimes feel like a jungle, especially as an artist, especially in the music business. For me, that album cover is really my statement to the world. I’m a little warrior. You have to be vulnerable as an artist. You are pretty much stripping yourself down every time you get on the stage, for people to hate you, to love you, to judge you.”

Aside from being a musician, Shea Rose is also a humanitarian who uses music to promote social change. Her organization titled “My Angel Wears A Fro” teaches young people about empowerment and having a career in the arts and how much it helps youth to have an expression in life.

For now, Shea Rose longs to be a well-rounded artist like Queen Latifah who works in film, theater, and music. “That’s where I see myself,” Rose said.

www.shearose.com