Teen R&B Star Shanice Reappears After Five-Year Break
BY DAVID NATHAN
LOS ANGELES -- It's been five years since her name graced the pop and R&B charts, but Shanice is back with a new label affiliation and album that clearly reflects her creative growth as a singer/songwriter.
Her self-titled first project for LaFace Records demonstrates that the Pittsburgh-born, Los Angeles-raised artist has reached a new level of maturity. She co-wrote five of the album's 12 tracks; one song, "You Need A Man," was co-written by Montell Jordan.
The release features production work from LaFace co-owner Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Dallas Austin, Warryn "Smiley" Campbell, Jazz The Man, Jamey Jaz, Laney Stewart, Leslie Brathwaite, Anthony Dent, Rashad Coes, London Jones, and Darren "Nitro" Clowers.
Edmonds, label co-owner Antonio "L.A." Reid, Pete "Luv" Farmer, and Shanice serve as co-executive producers for the album, which is due March 9.
The set's first single, "When I Close My Eyes," shipped to radio Dec. 16, 1998. A video for the song, directed by Billie Woodruff, began airing on BET in December. It's also being played on the Box, as well as at local video outlets nationwide.
The track, which will not be made available commercially, climbs to No. 45 this issue on the Hot R&B Singles & Tracks chart.
For Shanice, whose last name is Wilson, the new album "definitely represents where I'm at in my life, since I did so much of the writing myself."
"Each producer pretty much let me do my thing," she adds, "so I felt a lot of freedom."
The artist, who scored her first charted single in 1987 at the age of 14 with "(Baby Tell Me) Can You Dance" on A&M, left Motown Records in 1994 following the release of the album "21 ... Ways To Grow." Her last single for that label was "I Wish" in 1995.
Shanice's subsequent activities have included a stint on Broadway in "Les Misérables" (playing the role of Eponine), a duet with Jon Secada for the 1995 Disney film "Pocahontas," and the placement of her songwriting collaboration "I Love You" on singer Keith Washington's 1998 album, "K.W."
LaFace's Reid explains that Shanice pacted with the label after his partner, Edmonds, was asked to work on a projected album by the artist for Arista in 1997.
"When I found out that Arista had signed her and was looking for Kenny [Edmonds] to work with her, I told them that we wanted her for LaFace," Reid says. "We looked at a couple of different approaches to making the album, but it really started taking shape when she began writing songs for it. She and Pete Farmer brought me some of the material she had been working on, and that's when the skeleton for the album began to take shape."
In addition to producing three tracks on Shanice's first LaFace disc, Edmonds brought the artist in to sing on the Toni Braxton hit "Breathe Again" on his 1997 "MTV Unplugged" set for Epic. Shanice was also featured on "Bedtime," a key cut on LaFace artist Usher's 1997 double-platinum album, "My Way."
LaFace plans a major campaign for the artist's label debut. According to marketing VP Lisa Cambridge, LaFace will include either a video for a second single or an electronic press kit with the album. The imprint has set up a deal with Macy's and Federated-controlled department stores to play the current video in locations that attract teen and young adult consumers, as well as partnered with the company Window Shoppers to have approximately 5,000 posters of Shanice displayed in beauty shops, barber shops, and certain local retail stores starting the first week of March.
In addition, the label has also worked out for Movietune to show a slide of Shanice at movie theaters in major markets and is doing a special promotion with Magic Johnson Theaters that also involves showing a slide before movies, as well as postcard giveaways.
No plans have been set for an international release of the album.
Looking to expand upon the artist's existing audience, LaFace's Cambridge says that the label plans a heavy campaign aimed at high school students.
"We're concerned that there's a generation that doesn't know her," Cambridge says. "They may recognize her big hit ["I Love Your Smile," a 1991 chart-topper on Hot R&B Singles & Tracks and No. 2 hit on The Billboard Hot 100]. But they don't know who Shanice is or that she had her first record deal when she was 11.
"We're targeting about 1,200 high schools on the West Coast in April," Cambridge adds. "Shanice will be visiting about 100 of those schools to visit, to either speak and/or perform."
The label is also initiating a TV ad campaign in mid-February and print campaign in April.
LaFace's Reid sees Shanice as "someone who has her own niche. She's not the same as Brandy, Monica, or Aaliyah -- she's older. But she isn't a Whitney Houston or a Toni Braxton either. She can develop her own audience, and we see her as a long-term artist for us."
LaFace plans industry showcases for Shanice Feb. 16 in Chicago, March 3 in New York, and March 4 in Los Angeles. Shanice has already taped spots for forthcoming episodes of "Soul Train," "Motown Live!," and "Showtime At The Apollo."
Shanice is published by EMI Music/ASCAP and managed by Crystal Penny Management. She is currently in discussions for major agency representation.
It's been five years sinceShanice Wilson--now known to one and all by her first name only--had a record in the marketplace, and she admits those years have been full of learning experiences and personal growth. For starters, the Pittsburgh-born, L.A.-raised, 25-year-old singer left Motown Records, after a three-year stint that brought her to international prominence thanks to the massive 1991 smash "I Love Your Smile." The parting followed a lukewarm response to her second Motown LP, 21 Ways...To Grow, the title referencing her "coming of age" as a 21-year-old who'd actually been recording since the age of 11. "It was just time to move on and try some other things,"Shanice explains diplomatically. "I admit I was a little disappointed that the album didn't do better, but I kept my head up and didn't let it stop me."
Shanice also went through other, more personal life changes after her split from Motown. "Well, I experienced a heartbreak about four years ago," she says, referring to a relationship that came to an abrupt end. "The good thing is that I learned from it and I was able to move on. I was also able to write some great songs as a result of what I went through."
Turning her attention back to her career, Shanice was cast in the role of Eponine in the hit Broadway musical Les Miserables in 1994. "It was very challenging," she admits, "because it was a different kind of singing from anything I'd done before. It was almost like doing opera night after night, and naturally, I learned a lot from it."
Shanice also did some recording, singing with Latin heartthrob Jon Secada on the soundtrack for the Disney film Pocahontas in 1995 and teaming up with pop star Kenny Loggins on his Live In The Redwoods album. And she continued her songwriting
Originally, Shanice was supposed to record for Arista Records, but LaFace co-owner Antonio "L.A." Reid lobbied for her to be with the Atlanta-based label. "I did some background sessions with Usher for his album
Working with Babyface, Dallas Austin and a number of relatively new hitmakers (including Warryn "Smiley" Campbell, Anthony Dent, Rashad Coes, London Jones, Jazz The Man and Jamey Jaz), Shanice created an album filled with funky grooves and strong ballads. The single "When I Close My Eyes" and accompanying video showcase Shanice's new look, new image and new attitude. "People have their own ideas of who I am and they may still think of me as being the 18-year-old bubbly girl from 'I Love Your Smile,' but this album is not like that," she says with obvious confidence. "I'm talking now about relationships and real life, about things I've been going through...It's about who I am now."
activities that had actually begun way back in 1987, the year she completed Discovery, her first album for A&M. "I collaborated on some songs," she begins, "and one of them, 'I Love You,' was recorded by Keith Washington as a duet with Chante Moore for his 1998 album, K.W. That was a song that Kenny 'Babyface' Edmonds heard along with some other tunes I'd written, and he said he was interested in helping me find a new recording home."
