When most people think about Hawaii, they think about black sand beaches, volcanic islands, and year round 80-degree weather. The city of Honolulu hosts the world famous Waikiki Strip, home to Shella a.k.a. "The Blasian", because of her Black&Asian heritage. Shella is a rapper, singer, songwriter, producer and engineer with the force about to shake up the music scene with her originality and international commercial appeal! Not only does she write her own lyrics, she does this fluently in English and Japanese. Her melodic lines and catchy phrases undoubtedly let you know she has an exotic style of her own.
Shella Sanders was born and raised in Honolulu to an African American
father and Japanese mother. Her musical influences stem from both cultures. Shella got her start in music at the early age of 11 as a DJ for school events and house parties. She has always been a fan of Yoyo and Mc Lite, Left Eye, Eve, and females dominating the industry. Tragically, her father was killed a year later and her passion for music grew as she learned how to turn bad emotions to good ones by writing and singing songs. "I wrote my first set of songs to all the instrumentals on the Chronic 2001 vinyl." Opening for all major acts that came through Hawaii including Sean Paul, Stylez P and Lauryn Hill, Shella's
following grew beyond Hawaii and caught the eye of many record execs.
At age 15, she was flown to New York to talk about a record deal with the Ruff Ryders. Everything seemed to be coming together, then suddenly Shella's mother was murdered in Waikiki which forced her to move to Chicago with family at age 16. Numb to the world, with music as her only outlet Shella persevered and started to produce her own music and incorporate Japanese lyrics into her already lavish flow. Toyota caught wind of this new bilingual sound and placed her on a promotional Cd sampler for Scion. This drove Shella to embark on a journey to bridge the gap between Asian an American urban pop markets. Upon graduating high school a year early, Shella went on to study audio engineering and received her pro tools operators license.
Finally 18, with thoughts of touching a new fan base Shella went to Tokyo for a while creating a buzz and developing international appeal. She linked up with DJ Princess Cut, a down south Japanese renowned DJ and put together her first EP: Blasian Music presented by DJ Princess Cut. The EP features Lil Flip and Hawaii's own, Fiji. In May 2008 Shella toured Japan alongside DJ Princess Cut which furthered her following in Japan. Shella's EP: Blasian Music has landed on the Billboard top 100 R&B/Hip Hop album chart consecutively for 3 weeks. Right now she is in LA working on new music. http://Shella.biz under construction.
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