Shameika said I had potential

November 20, 2020 10:44 AM

“Sweetie, you got potential. You don’t have to worry about these girls, Fi. Come sit with me at my table.”—Shameika Stepney recounts the advice she gave a young Fiona Apple

“This is a white woman during Black Lives Matter giving a Black woman her flowers,” Shameika says. “That’s some real shit. That’s why it’s so powerful.”

posted by komara (15 comments total)

Oh, I love this story and I love this reunion.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 11:07 AM on November 20, 2020 [3 favorites]

❤️
posted by supercrayon at 11:21 AM on November 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

Absolutely love this song, and the surrounding story makes it even sweeter.
posted by sundaydriver at 11:24 AM on November 20, 2020 [3 favorites]

I'm so happy about this! Thanks for sharing.
posted by potrzebie at 12:01 PM on November 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've been waiting for this moment since I first heard the song! What a brilliant album.
posted by Godspeed.You!Black.Emperor.Penguin at 1:27 PM on November 20, 2020 [4 favorites]

This story is amazing.

Original

Follow-up (this is better)
posted by dlugoczaj at 2:01 PM on November 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

Did not think the best album of the year could get any better after the fact, but it just did.
posted by signal at 2:39 PM on November 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

Oh, my - this is WONDERFUL.

(Beautifully written by Jenn Pelly, too.)

Thank you, truly, for sharing this, komara.
posted by kristi at 4:42 PM on November 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

What an amazing story for anyone who thinks that they can’t make a difference.
posted by Jubey at 4:49 PM on November 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

I love this album so much, and this song is sort of one of the bedrock tracks from it. I haven't taken in any of this post yet, but thank you for this. I am so looking forward to digesting it.
posted by hippybear at 7:13 PM on November 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

Thanks so much for posting this! One day, maybe when I'm old and wiser, I'll be able to play piano like Fiona. So much groove, and she has a way of conceptualizing rhythm that's really unique.

I love Fiona Apple's music so much (so odd because I produce dubstep and play bass in a melodeath band) but she's a serious badass for charting her own path in the music industry as a woman and was one my first memories of an artist stepping around the labels to make her music heard - at a time when I remember bitching to my musician friends about the All Powerful Labels.

The thing about Fiona is I get lost in my music bubble, and come back every few years and then get OBSESSED with her latest release (my first Fiona album was Extraordinary Machine when I was 19) and then I get pulled away by my more normal musical influences. And now I got pulled back again!
posted by thebotanyofsouls at 8:53 PM on November 20, 2020 [2 favorites]

Not to abuse the edit window: that story is so incredibly moving. Both Fiona and Shameika are so lucky to be able to renew that connection from childhood over something as profound as making music.
posted by thebotanyofsouls at 8:53 PM on November 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

And now I got pulled back again!

To be fair it's her first release in a zillion years, and it was a bit of a surprise when it came out. She recorded it all in her house on her laptop and used different room ambience and objects around the house for atmosphere or percussion. It's a brilliant piece of work all around, a real gift during this year.
posted by hippybear at 9:17 PM on November 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

Shameika lyrics

Shameika Said lyrics

This whole exchange is awesome, as in truly evoking awe in me. What a thing. 2020, thank you!
posted by hippybear at 10:13 PM on November 20, 2020 [1 favorite]

I was driving my chevy down a blowy snowy road & somehow that song came on the scratchy radio & I don't know anything but I was
blown. a. way!
So grateful to read more about it and to hear it again and that remix.
and grateful to all the Shameikas out there.
posted by cabin fever at 11:42 PM on November 20, 2020 [2 favorites]