Fiona Apple Reunites With Shameika For New Song “Shameika Said”
“Shameika,” one of the many highlights from Fiona Apple’s new album Fetch The Bolt Cutters, was inspired by a classmate that Apple once had who said she “had potential.” During the rollout for Fetch The Bolt Cutters, Apple had said that she was unsuccessful in reaching out to the real-life Shameika, but that has now changed. Apple has indeed reunited with Shameika, full name Shameika Stepney, for a new song called “Shameika Said.”
As laid out in a new Pitchfork feature, Stepney has been making rap music for the last 30 years under various names, including Dollface, and she found out about “Shameika,” the song, soon after it was released thanks to a card sent in the mail from Apple’s third grade teacher.
“This group of girls used to bully people all the time — that was their thing,” Stepney recalled in the interview when talking about the inspiration for Apple’s song. “But I wasn’t scared of them. I sat at every table. My parents paid like $35,000 a year to send me to that school, so I can sit at any table I want, and you’re not gonna tell me otherwise! All of these tables are mine! I was like a warrior as a little kid — I was fearless.”
Stepney reached out to Apple over the summer and that’s how “Shameika Said” came about, which samples the original song and features new vocals from Apple. Check it out below.
And here’s a new video for the Fetch The Bolt Cutters version of “Shameika”: