You may know her as the pen behind “Prom Queen” or from her steamy make-out sessions with Lil Wayne on stage at the “I Am Music” tour. Now Weezy’s protégé Shanell aka SnL is ready for her close-up.

The singer-songwriter, signed to Young Money Entertainment, is preparing her ’80s-inspired pop/rock debut. The album’s first offering, “Play in My Band,” was produced by Willy Will and features her Young Money boss. The song fuses rock ‘n’ roll drums and guitar with hard-knocking hip-hop beats and a splash of R&B.

Shanell, who is also one-third of songwriting team The Girls Club, is collaborating with producers including Bangladesh (“A Milli”), Maestro (“3 Peat”), Catalyst, and Soundz (“Love in This Club, Pt. II”).

The nose-ring-chain-rocking singer may be used to hanging out with the boys on the road, but she’s empowering women with her music. “There’s not a lot of females that are helping each other,” she tells Rap-Up.com. “Guys do it all the time. I want to be a voice for women ’cause women have it so hard in this music business.”

In between working on projects for Ludacris, Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes, David Guetta, and Aubrey O’Day, Shanell reveals the one song that defines her movement. “Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,’” she laughs. “I’m expressing everything from the negative to the positive.”

Shanell and the rest of the Young Money family are currently making their way across the country on the “America’s Most Wanted Music Festival.”

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