Mallrat

The electro-pop style of Mallrat, laced with hip-hop touches, originates with Australian singer and songwriter Grace Shaw. Just prior to issuing her opening EP, Uninvited, in 2016, she rose to viral prominence through a run of laptop-crafted tracks centered on adolescent experiences. Her third EP, Driving Music, reached the Top Ten of the Australian album chart in 2019, and she delivered her first full-length album, Butterfly Blue, in 2022.

Raised in Brisbane, Shaw selected her performing alias from the 2013 Orwells song "Mallrats (La La La)." In 2015, at age sixteen, she began posting self-recorded pieces exploring school life, clothing, and social isolation on music-sharing platforms. Mallrat soon appeared frequently atop the Hype Machine charts and put out her debut EP, Uninvited, in the middle of 2016. Nettwerk issued the project on its label in early 2017 after describing her as "the Hannah Montana of the rap game." Indie rock outfit Baby Spiders along with EDM acts Oh Boy and Donatachi invited her onto their recordings, while her track "For Real" appeared in a smartphone advertisement. Early in 2018 she released the EP In the Sky and performed for the first time in the United States at South by Southwest. The standalone single "Nobody's Home," recorded with Basenji, arrived the following year.

Having moved past her teenage years, Mallrat paired ordinary moments with insistent rhythmic and melodic hooks on the Driving Music EP, which came out in September 2019. It entered the ARIA album chart at number ten, coinciding with a North American tour alongside Australian rapper Allday. One month later she made her American late-night television debut on The Late Late Show with James Corden. In 2020 Mallrat put out the ARIA-charting single "Rockstar," and in 2022 she previewed "Your Love," "Teeth," and the Azealia Banks-assisted "Surprise Me" before unveiling her debut long-player, Butterfly Blue.