Shystie

Born in Hackney, London, in 1982 to a Barbadian mother and a Grenadian father, Chanelle Scott Calica came to prominence from Britain’s underground urban scene roughly twelve months after Ms. Dynamite had opened doors for domestically nurtured female MCs, quickly earning the tag “first lady of grime.” Early exposure to her parents’ Al Green and Marvin Gaye collections preceded her enrollment in a sound-engineering program aimed at grasping the mechanics of record production. An appearance on pirate station Freek FM led to an invitation to guest on the Dreem Teem’s influential Radio 1 program, a headline slot on a nationwide under-21 rave tour, and mounting label interest sparked by her white-label reply to Dizzee Rascal’s breakthrough single “I Luv U.”

Signed to Polydor’s Locked On imprint in 2004, she entered the Top 40 with debut single “One Wish” and issued her first album, Diamond in the Dirt. That same year she supported Basement Jaxx and the Streets on their British tours, earned a MOBO nomination for Best Newcomer, and was featured as a character in the racing game Juiced. Turning toward acting in 2005, she took the lead role of aspiring MC Dionne in the interactive urban drama Dubplate Drama, whose audience-voted endings shaped each episode, and subsequently appeared in the box-office-topping feature Adulthood.