Shystie

Emerging from the U.K. underground urban scene a year after Ms. Dynamite had paved the way for home-grown female MCs, fast-paced rapper Shystie was described as the first lady of grime. Born Chanelle Scott Calica in Hackney, London in 1982 to a Barbadian mother and Grenadian father, she grew up listening to her parents' Al Green and Marvin Gaye records before enrolling on a sound engineering course in order to understand the business of music-making. Following an appearance on pirate radio station Freek FM, she was invited to perform on the Dreem Teem's influential Radio 1 show, to headline a tour of under-21 raves and was anle to generate interest from various record companies thanks to her white-label response to Dizzee Rascal's breakthrough hit "I Luv U." After signing to Polydor imprint Locked On in 2004, she reached the Top 40 with her first single, "One Wish," and released her first album, Diamond in the Dirt. In the same year, she supported Basement Jaxx and the Streets on their U.K. tours, received a nomination for Best Newcomer at the MOBO Awards, and appeared as a character in the racing video game Juiced. In 2005, she switched her attention to acting after landing the lead role of aspiring MC, Dionne, in Dubplate Drama, an urban-based interactive series which allowed viewers to vote on the outcome of each episode's ending, and later appeared in box-office number one movie Adulthood. ~ Jon O'Brien