Jamaican dancehall artiste Shenseea has jumped out in defence of Lick, her controversial new collaboration with American rapper Megan Thee Stallion, dismissing the sexually suggestive song’s haters and declaring that she will not bow to critics accusing her of straying too far from her dancehall roots.

Shenseea, speaking on Instagram Live with an accent she admitted was put on to allow her American fans to understand her, said she had vowed to give dancehall five years at the start of her career before branching out into new styles aimed at exposing her to larger markets.

“I have never aspired to be a dancehall queen in my life! Never! Because I am not only going to be doing dancehall. I can do alot of other different genres. I am not going to put myself in no box to please nobody, so please, don’t expect that from me,” Shenseea said during her IG Live in which she celebrated her song hitting the #103 spot in the United States on the Apple streaming chart.

“I have been doing [dancehall music] for five years because I told myself I am going to give myself to my Caribbean people, strictly, and my country for five years just to show that I can do it. I’ve done that. That’s off my list.

“Now is time to go to the next level. I am never going to be an artiste that you are going to say ‘oh, I sound the same’.”

CO-DIRECTED MUSIC VIDEO

She was responding to many of her new song’s critics who have expressed disappointment with her performance on the track, with some advising her to get back to the kind of traditional dancehall music that has made her a household name in Jamaica since her debut just half a decade ago.

Shenseea, who during the lG Live also revealed that she co-directed the video for Lick, thanked her fans and haters alike for streaming the track and for making her a top trending story since the song and video were released Friday morning.

“It sets the tone for my album,” she said of Lick, which, despite the unending criticism it has been receiving on social media platforms, from Jamaicans and Americans alike, has already wracked up more than 2.1 million views on YouTube.

Her album, Alpha, has been set for release on March 11.

Chart Performance of ‘Lick’ to date on iTunes:

#3 Bulgaria

#8 Saint Kitts and Nevis

#14 Grenada

#62 United States

#76 Belgium

Chart performance of ‘Lick’ to date on Apple Music:

#1 Suriname

#5 Belize

#5 British Virgin Islands

#5 Cayman Islands

#5 Trinidad and Tobago

#6 Seychelles

#7 Guyana

#7 St Kitts and Nevis

#8 Antigua and Barbuda

#8 Dominica

#8 Grenada

#10 Jamaica

#10 Turks and Caicos

#13 St Lucia

#14 St Vincent and The Grenadines

#25 Anguilla

#25 Barbados

#34 Bermuda

#35 The Bahamas

#55 Chad

#72 Gambia

#90 Sierra Leone

#103 United States

#113 Malawi

#117 Bahrain

#143 Lebanon

#176 Finland