Claressa Shields has a music video out for “Party,” the first single from her upcoming debut album What Did You Expect? The video arrived on October 30, and this week the Flint boxing champion previewed the album live in Atlanta.
Claressa Shields Party Video Sets The Tone
“Party” is the introduction, and it is built like one. Shields is not easing into music with a quiet record; the single and its video present her the way her fights do, front and centre, with the confidence that made her the self styled GWOAT of women’s boxing. The song made its debut on October 30 alongside the video, and it is the first piece of the album the public gets to judge.
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An Atlanta Room Hears The Album First
On November 3, Shields held her first ever music listening party in Atlanta, in partnership with Rolling Out, and played several unreleased tracks from What Did You Expect? for a room of DJs, media and supporters. Atlanta rap names Scrappy and Jhonni Blaze were among the guests, and her partner Papoose, a lyricist with his own long recording career, took the stage alongside her during the night.
“A lot of people didn’t know what to expect from me musically, but last night, I let the music speak for itself.”
Shields shouted out the producers behind the project, juisebeats, duanedarock, iamcgbeats, sean2miles and Cody, and told the room more music is dropping next week. No release date for the full album has been announced yet.
From The Ring To The Booth
The crossover comes with a résumé few recording artists can match. Shields is a two time Olympic gold medallist and a multi division world champion who has held undisputed titles in the ring, and she has carried that same certainty into every room since. Boxing history is full of fighters who recorded a novelty song. Fewer have built a full album, a listening party circuit and a rollout around it, which is exactly the structure Shields has put in place here.
What happens next is simple: “Party” is streaming and on video now, more music is promised within days, and What Did You Expect? will get its date once the preview run is done. The boxing champion has made her opening argument. The album gets to make the rest of it.
