- LeShaun
LeShaun is an American female rapper who is known best for her sexy voice and for creating songs of explicit sexual nature with a humorous twist.
Formerly known as Almond Joy, LeShaun burst upon the scene in 1988 along with her DJ Short Cut, on the track "Wild Thang" as the vocal half of a group called 2 Much. The song is seen by some as a female response to "Wild Thing" by
Tone Loc ; reminiscent ofRoxanne Shante and The Real Roxanne's response records to a popular song byUTFO . Instead of attacking Tone Loc, LeShaun takes on the female's perspective of his song, and in the end makes it her own. However, it is hard to see that LeShaun's "Wild Thang" truly is a response to Tone Loc's "Wild Thing", since the former was originally released one year before the latter.A remixed and re-recorded version of "Wild Thang" resurfaced again in 1993 on the "Ready or Not" single. Around this time LeShaun was signed to
Tommy Boy Records and involved inFlavor Unit , whose most recoginable face is that ofQueen Latifah , appearing on a track on the posse album "Rollin' Wit Tha Flava" in that same year.Over the next few years LeShaun released a few other songs or collaborations, such as "Wide Open" in 1994 which was produced by
D Nice , an influential former member of the crewBoogie Down Productions that was led byKRS-One . "Wide Open" along with her old hit "Wild Thang" is most likely what led to her collaborating with other popular artists likeCoolio andLL Cool J .LeShaun received a surge in popularity when she collaborated with LL Cool J on the track called "Doin' It" that appeared on his album "Mr. Smith". The song can be seen as a remake or an update to her song "Wild Thang" and even keeps the trademark synthesizer licks of the original. This popularity would not come to full fruition due to controversy about her not appearing in the "Doin' It" video. LL Cool J made claims that it was due to LeShaun's pregnancy at the time, rather than any other of her physical features. The video instead has a different woman for each of the verses in the song. This seemingly does not deter LeShaun from working with LL Cool J, since she has teamed up with him on songs after these events.
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