Jessie J has swept the board at the MOBOs but this talented lot are hot on her tail.
Quietly confident, like a champion heavyweight boxer with really great eyebrows, Yasmin looks like she cropped up out of nowhere. However, most will have first heard of her enviable DJ career, including stints with N.E.R.D and Eve, where she romanced the hip-hop scene. Now on the otherside of the decks as a singer and songwriter she’s releasing her debut single, trip-hoppy Shy FX produced ‘On My Own’, on Ministry of Sound’s label. To my relief she’s avoided being spat out the other side of the A&R machine a pop princess and managed to hold her own. So while she may have pin-up looks, the ammo of producers on her upcoming album prove she’s not to be fucked with.
Already given Mary Anne Hobbs blessing, singer Stac has some of the most heartbreakingly smooth harmonies around in UK soul. If you need to be immediately converted search for her song ‘Whoops’ on YouTube, if you don’t like it you deserve to be locked in a dungeon with only Celine Dion to listen to.
Croydon bred GoldieLocks first caught peoples attention as not your typical looking or sounding lady-rapper, appearing on the soundtrack to Adulthood and collaborating with the likes of Kate Nash and The Mitchell Brothers. However her nonchalant and admirable not giving a solitary shit about the pop industry has seen her stepping out of the limelight to return to her first love, production, releasing her first instrumental tracks on her own label Gut Instinct.
Hailing from Huddersfield songstress Belle cites an aversion to “mining down the pit or working in Maccy D’s” as inspiration for moving to London to pursue music. With tunes heavily rooted in UK hip-hop, she has all the laidback sultriness of Erykah Badu and yet it’s all from an angel faced white girl from Hudds.
Quietly confident, like a champion heavyweight boxer with really great eyebrows, Yasmin looks like she cropped up out of nowhere.
Don’t be fooled by the name. The slick, unclassifiable beats of Maya Medvesek are anything but Gameboy-esque and have established her as a strong up and comer in the UK’s club music scene. A tiny, gregarious Slovenian girl it’s sometimes hard to believe tracks that sound like they’ve been made while in the grips of an inspired ether binge, come out of her. The sheer breadth of genres she mashes together makes for a technical wet dream, take note music nerds.
An honorary mention for Kate Tempest, current queen of the spoken word circuit, I’m not sure whether to classify her as a poet, rapper, musician or what, but anyway. Usually the idea of being stuck at a spoken word night would fill me with dread, enough to make me hack my own arm off as an excuse not to go, but Tempest lyrics, delivery and raw passion could move even the iciest bastard to tears.
I sat on the fence about Mz Bratt for a long while, mainly because she first appeared on that shockingly cack Channel 4 show Musi-Cool. However, cheesy career steps aside she is one of the many female MC’s outshining their male counterparts. With a sharp wit and clever rhymes she has the clout to be a break out star without losing her nerve and abandoning her grime beginnings.
Sharp as shit DJ and music producer, Sara Abdel-Hamid AKA Ikonika’s stripped down, bass heavy beats have earned her nothing but praise from the music press. Signed to Hyperdub, a breeding ground for some of the most obscenely talented underground producers, next year will see her following up her much lauded debut album ‘Contact, Love, Want, Have’.
Finally, whilst everyone and their dog started to dabble in dubstep it looked like it might die on it’s arse, until Katy B managed the impossible at the tail end of 2010 by making it melodic and accessible. The first lady of the Rinse FM family, which has kick-started many an underground artists career, her female touch has revitalised a genre.
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This kid may have failed his Chemistry exam but he'll always be a winner in our eyes.
