I just wanna take you on a journey from how I got to where I am now. It's almost 2011 and I'm working on my fourth album. But, this show is a part of story. This was about 3 or 4 years ago. They say you can take a person out of the hood but you can't take the hood out of a person.lol It's nothing like being able to be yourself without feeling judged....especially on stage. You do have to learn how to conduct yourself and play the game in certain environments though. You have to turn on that corporate face some places and some places you can be you. There is a saying that says go where you are celebrated and not where you are tolerated. I was celebrated in the Holy Hip Hop community and I really appreciate it. Holy Hip Hop is not very popular when it comes to "gospel." Some old heads and some young heads just weren't feeling it and still don't. Sometimes you can't go where the path may lead, you have to go where there is no path and leave a trail. That's what they did with the Holy Hip Hop Genre. So the Holy Hip Hop fans showed me a lot of love. They have the Holy Hip Hop Awards in ATL every January. I had been there twice but God blessed me to be able to win a Holy Hip Hop Award and I performed that day as well.
Check out one of my fav memories performing at the Holy Hip Hop Awards here.
I was going through youtube one day and found these guys dancing to one of my songs "I'm Going Home" off of my second album "The Lita Mae Show."
I'm Going Home is a song about a wife who allowed an emotional affair to steer her away from her husband and she left him. Even though she left with this other man, her heart was still with her husband. Conviction was so strong on her that she decides to go back home to her husband, her first love.
Check out "Jadson Jone-JHH" Dancing To it and listen to the full song under it.......
It's always exciting to travel to different cities and perform. This show was in Miami, Florida. I love it in Miami. The reason that this show is so special is because it was my first time being on one of TBN's biggest programs JCTV called YOUTH IMPACT TV. I did this show in 2005. Even though this clip is rather embarassing because I was big Shei..lol, I do understand that it was years ago and it was very significant to me. It's still a part of my story and journey to the top and I'm grateful for it.
Check Big Shei out singing "Temptation" on Youth Impact TV......
Street Flava is one of the Hottest Video Shows in Houston. OMG!!! I'll NEVER forget the day I walked in to do the interview. The show comes on UPN Channel 20 so that was huge for me to interview with D Solo. I did an interview and they played my video "I Got Shot."
Check out a clip of the interview from Street Flava....another one of my fav memories in my singing career....
In 2007, the summer before "Girl Talk" came out, God Blessed me to go on the Russ Parr Bus Tour with Lil Mama, Cupid, Mario, Yung Berg, B-Five, The Alliance, and many more. I had a great time on that tour.
Check out another one of my fav memories in my career in Louisville, Kentucky performing "J-Walk....."
"I Got Shot" is one of those life songs and yes it is a true story. I told you I sing about the real.lol To make it short I was 13 years old and I got shot because of my disobedience to my mama. She told me I couldn't go to these certain apartments anymore because I kissed a boy over there and she found out.lol
Word on the street was there was a party over there in the apartments and me and my friends went to a lot of parties. I had to get to this party...so I got sneaky with it. I came up with a plan to spend the night at a friends house who's mama said she could go to the party. We would leave and go to the party once my mama dropped me off. It was really like a sleepover party so we spent the night over there. Well everything was cool until the day after the party. Me,and a couple of friends were walking to the store along with the guy who had the gun. He was saying there weren't any bullets in the gun and wanted to play Rush and Roulette. I was like "Hell No". I was walking a little bit ahead of the group. I remember him putting the gun to my friends arm and clicking it but it didn't go off.
All I know is I'm walking ahead of them and I hear this loud bang. Lo and behold!!! That bullet hit me in my upper back. Needless to say, I was taken to the hospital. All I could think about was the fact that my mama told me not to go but I didn't listen. She was 9 months pregnant with my little sister. What news to hear at 9 months pregnant. She rushed up there and thank God I was ok. My family came to see me. God spared me. The bullet didn't hit any vital organs. It hit a bone in my upper back and came out. When I got home I found the bullet in my left front pocket. Yes...I really did. To me that was God's way of telling me he kept me for a reason and don't let it happen no more.lol
After the news sank in to my dad that his daughter had got shot, he got to thinking about that thang. He called that night ready to kill.lol We had to calm him down and let him know if I hadn't been over there, it would have never happened.
***Disobedience Costs.
Check out one of my favorite memories in my career...my first video...True Story... "I Got Shot"
You know I was excited when I had the opportunity to sing on TBN. This was my first time and I really don't have to much to say about it. But it is another one of my fav memories in my singing career. God was opening doors and it helped me get to where I am today.
I remember when I went on tour with Lisa McClendon Debra Killings, Mr. Del and Canton Jones in Tennesse. I was so happy to finally meet someone I felt I could relate to in the music industry. I loved his music. It related to the younger audience. If you don't have any of Canton Jones albums, go support it. He was a very cool cat and we were on a lot of the same shows in different cities. I was honored to be a part of his "Doin It Big Tour." This was my first time singing at World Changers Church (Creflo's Church) In Atlanta which also goes into one of my favorite memories. Check me out singing "He Fix It"
I have to say this ok.....I wasn't really working out during this time so keep in mind that ya girl was tired by the time I got to this song.....cracking and all kinds of stuff..LOL This is still apart of my journey to the top. New R&B album coming 2011. Stay tuned.
Check out one of my fav memories at Creflo's Church.....
I remember the first time I heard J Moss's music. I was like OMG!! This brother can sang and not only does his music touch you but it's off the chain. I had met him in Houston b/c we were on the same show. I gave him a copy of my cd and that was the end of that. I had a photo shoot for(twelve) XII magazine in Kansas City. The picture you see is from the article. Anyways, It just so happened I was on the same show as J Moss again. That was such a blessing cuz you know I had to see this man with the crazy vocals again.. So at the end of the show you know how you go to the back and get food and chill with the pastor and stuff..lol..I really got a chance to talk to him instead of it being a hi and bye thing.
Check out some footage from the photoshoot in Kansas which is one of my favorites and the video from seeing J Moss again........
For those of you who don't know me, I'm Shei Atkins. I have three albums out...first one came out in '04. Last one came out in 2007. It's been 3 years since I've released and album. I'm currently working on my new album which will be out 2011. Why has it been so long you ask? Because I had to pray and get direction from and God and learn some things before I came back out confidently. I was able to write a book "Get a Man, Keep a Man" during my down time though. Please support and go get it.
Okay back to the story...All three of my previous albums have a mixture of R&B and Gospel. So ppl were always confused about what style of music I sang. All I knew was that I wanted to help people. I've been married for 9 years, and we almost didn't make it that first year. We survived our storm and what I went through in my marriage created a strong passion and desire in me to help ppl in relationships. I make it a purpose to share my wisdom with the world b/c I know ppl need to hear it. When I write a song, I write what I feel and what I believe the music is saying. I don't write with the focus of it fitting a certain genre. I love all styles of music.
When some ppl heard R&B on my albums they were like, this is not gospel. And you know what? They were right. My albums were not what you would call a traditional gospel album. My music is inspirational...but at the end of the day, there is no inspirational category in the industry. And when it comes down to business, labels want to know how they will be able to market you and make money with your product..... no matter what your personal vision is. So my next album is R&B bc I don't wanna be limited in my subject matter with ppl confused of what I do. First I was scared to say I did R&B bc of fear of being judged. But I know who I am now and what I was put here for. When you're sure of yourself, you don't have 2 prove anything to anybody.
Sometimes I'd go to Walmart just to look at my albums in there. It's a blessing to see your albums in Walmart.lol They had some of my albums in the R&B section and some were in Gospel section. So even Walmart didn't know where to put it.lol It's not that I personally was doing anything wrong, it's just when it comes to being on a record label, you have to be able to market your artist. Unless the artist doesn't mind not being signed and is willing to make the sacrifice of selling it themselves....especially if they don't want to boxed into a certain genre. Then you can pretty much do what you want.
I was getting judged a lot by "ppl" because they couldn't put me in that genre box. A genre doesn't define who I am as a person. My lifestyle and my character does. I don't judge people and I don't like how others are judged because of what genre of music they sing. It's wrong to judge people and assume they aren't right with God and are off the world just because they sing something besides gospel music. You've got some bad apples in every genre including gospel. Whether you know it or not, all R&B isn't bad. It's the lyrics that make a song bad. Just like money isn't bad, it's what you do with the money that makes it bad.
My tolerance level was getting low with the judgment. I had my fans who loved me on one side and I had people judging me on the other side. I did understand that everyone wouldn't understand my vision, but it got to the point to where I just wanted to give up. I wasn't doing anything wrong, BUT I wasn't embraced by gospel all the way, and as I look back on it I understand why now. The truth of the matter is that, it wasn't all gospel so I can see why they kept asking me what style of music I did. During that time I had some great ride or die fans who still held me down, but when you look at what's going wrong in your life instead of what's going right, you lose focus and give up. That's what I did.
My last album "Girl Talk" came out in 2007. I felt in my heart to encourage the ladies and share my story and what I've learned. This is not every singer's calling, but it's mine. Even though my album Girl Talk had just come out, I still gave up. I said you know what, I can't do this anymore. The thing was, I was living for people and worried about what they thought of me, instead of doing what God put in me to do. You've heard of life after death right? Well God told me people don't know how to live life after church. The world needs people like Tyler Perry, Shei Atkins, Anthony Hamilton, Steve Harvey, etc to be lights b/c in reality we are the church. But there are so many ppl without that revelation.
I've seen many folks get through shouting and speaking in tongues and go right back to cheating on their spouses. I've seen young girls and boys leave church and the same week go back to sleeping around. I've seen many divorces in and out the church. People write me everyday about how to handle different situations in their marriage saved or not. People need what I have inside me. My music is for after you leave the church house. Do you know that about 50% of CHRISTIAN marriages end in divorce? But I was judged for singing songs that spoke life into people. That hurt me so bad.
Worship is a lifestyle, not a genre of music. Somewhere it was passed from generation to generation that if you sang gospel, you were right with God. If you sing gospel and don't live it, it defeats the purpose. And if you sing any other style of music and don't live for God, your life is still meaningless. God took me to the Book in the Bible called Song of Solomon. That book is all about love, and relationships and is full of letters of a couple expressing their love for one another. Check it out, you'll be surprised at what you find in the book. The body of Christ is bigger than a music genre. If you are a finger in the body of Christ, you can't look at the toe trying to get it to function like a finger. Every part of the body of Christ is unique and beneficial and if we all work together, we would be so much more powerful.
Even though I had the revelation that I was doing nothing wrong, I gave up because other people didn't see it and I let it stop me at one point. In my mind, Shei Atkins was dead. I said Lord, Shei Atkins is over. I'm done with her. My fans were writing me everyday and still do, telling me how my music has been a blessing to them and how they appreciated my realness. People were writing saying how I helped their marriage and young girls were confiding me and wanted advice on how to live life the godly way. So I knew I was on the right track. But at that point, it didn't matter. I was done. Listen, if you're doing something God told you to do, everyone might not see it. You will want to give up at times but keep going anyway. Not everyone needs what you have but there are many that do need what's inside of you.
A few months after I had threw in the towel, I got a phone call from Kim Burse around February 2008. I had an opportunity to sing background for Kelly Rowland. Not only would I sing background for her, we were going to London and Germany. I hopped on it with the quickness. Kelly and I had the same manager when I first started doing music in 1994, so it was great to hook up with her again. To me, that opportunity was God's way of saying I haven't forgotten about you daughter. That was just the boost I needed to get back into music.
If you are reading this blog, I encourage you not to judge people based on a style of music. This thing is bigger than that. Man made those genre titles up, not God. God is more concerned about HOW you live than WHAT you sing. The word does say you can tell a tree by it's fruit though. When a person has that close relationship with God, they'll be cautious of what comes out of their mouth and very cautious of how they use their influence. You can't be so busy judging people that you don't have time to love them. Even if you don't agree with what an artist sings, loving them will win over way before judging will.
People don't want to get saved when all they see is finger pointing. You have to show them Christ by your love. When ppl don't know God or read His word, You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips. Remember that next time you wanna judge somebody. I want to say that regardless of what genre of music I sing, know that I'm on a mission for God to go out INTO the world and be a godly example. If you can't see and understand my vision, just pray for me. Don't judge me. It might not be for you, but know that I'm on God's side and have fans that love me.
I got a chance to meet some very great people on the trip such as Wyclef and Kim Burse, Beyonce's Creative Director and many others. From the Kelly Rowland experience, I learned that God places people in your life for a reason and he opens doors for you to go places to be a blessing to others through that experience. I was able to do that. This experience will forever be one of my favorites. Thank you Kim Burse for thinking of me. You called me at a time when I had given up on Shei Atkins, and God used YOU to light a spark in me and I'll never forget it. Thank you and I love you.
Check out some video's from my great experience of singing background for Kelly Rowland......
Here's a little bit of the clip from the Real Show in Coventry, London. They show me a few times.lol
I'll never forget the night I was called on stage to come sing with Tank. He is one of my favorite male singers. I love His voice.lol It so happened he was going to be at a club where my stylist was holding a fashion show. A friend and I walked around the club and talked until my dogs start barking very badly.lol
So we chilled at a spot close to VIP. Not too long afterwards, a guy we knew was letting us in VIP and led us right to where Tank was. So we chilled in VIP and took pics and talked and stuff. Tank went on stage about an hour later. So while Tank was up there singing, a guy that was in Tank's crew that I went to church with years ago comes walking up to me talking about come on stage. My heart immediately started pounding.lol I had a choice...either go on this stage and sing nervous and all, or miss out on the opportunity b/c of fear. I walked on that stage and did my thing and got a chance to meet one of my fav singers. I've been able to sing with Him again. He's a very cool cat and always shows me love when He comes to Houston. I thank God for Him. If you're a fan of R&B like me, you'll love his new album 'Now or Never'. You'll be missing some good music if you don't.
I have a heart for connecting, empowering and helping relationships and women. I sing about life, love, and relationships. I luv family, the arts, reading, fitness, movies and cooking. I also love writing. Red Lobster is my favorite restaurant...cajun chicken pasta, endless shrimp, biscuits...yumm. Moving along.lol I luv spicy food but Buffalo Tenders are my favorite food. Even though I eat healthy..this will never change.lol I'm a house cat and a very laid back person who loves to conversate and give advice.
I just wanna take you on a journey from how I got to where I am now. It's almost 2011 and I'm working on my fourth album. But, this show is a part of story. This was about 3 or 4 years ago. They say you can take a person out of the hood but you can't take the hood out of a person.lol It's nothing like being able to be yourself without feeling judged....especially on stage. You do have to learn how to conduct yourself and play the game in certain environments though. You have to turn on that corporate face some places and some places you can be you. 
