London Music Award Nomination Speech Debelle: ‘Visceral, verbal and startlingly talented, she is one of London’s greatest talents, and as elusive as she is brilliant: the Lesser Spotted Rapper of the UK music scene’

Speech Debelle is probably the most famous rapper that you’ve never heard of. Visceral, verbal and startlingly talented, she has until recently been as elusive as she is brilliant: the Lesser Spotted Rapper of the UK music scene.  I saw her perform just once, and was struck by her eloquence, quietly pervasive stage-presence and soft, almost sugary voice that delicately wrapped itself around her savage lyrics and razor-sharp beats. Despite winning the Mercury prize in 2009, Debelle had something of a career wobble, splitting from her label Big Dada and slipping off the radar - a frustrating blip for an artist with so much talent.

Happily, Debelle and Big Dada kissed and made up last summer, and she teamed up with heavyweights Roots Manuva and Realism and made the astonishing ‘Blaze Up a Fire’ - a song infused with energy, politics and tension that strangely seemed to pre-empt the London riots: ‘Sometimes you need to blaze up a fire/ Let it be known for the record of your honour/Before the case gets settled in your honour’. It’s undoubtedly the most potent encapsulation of that bizarre moment in the city’s history, and is featured on Debelle’s brilliant new album, ‘Freedom of Speech’. This record marks Debelle’s return to the stage - and ‘Spinnin’ ’, from her remarkable first album ‘Speech Therapy’, has been chosen as one of the official songs of the Olympics. She has burst back into public consciousness as quickly as she bowed out; let’s hope she’s here to stay.

The Guardian Review.