Shystie

I would like to begin with a brief history lesson;

In 2001, a sizeable group of predominantly black youths clubbed together and began recording music under the name So Solid Crew. A thirtysomething-strong gaggle of singers, MCs and producers, the Crew achieved moderate commercial success despite their aggressive lyrical content and unfamiliar combination of UK Garage, US hip-hop and a few other bits and pieces thrown in as well. While a sizeable portion of the record-buying public met the Crew with a mixture of condemnation and confusion, there were also a fair few teenagers, particularly in London, who viewed the emergence of the So Solid Crew as an inspiration to write and record their own music. These youngsters would define what became known as grime. In the years following So Solid's emergence, Ms Dynamite and Dizzee Rascal would both win the Mercury Music Prize in consecutive years, Sway would beat 50 Cent's massively popular Get Rich or Die Tryin' to win best album at the MOBO Awards, and Lethal Bizzle would provide the grime scene it's very own rallying cry, the incendiary anthem Pow! Even today, grime's trajectory remains firmly upward in direction, with the likes of Wiley (along with his own crew, Roll Deep), N-Dubz, Example, Skepta, Wretch 32 and the aforementioned Dizzee Rascal all reaching the top of the UK charts over the past 2 years. While it must be said that all of these artists are making what is a watered-down, pop-friendly version of grime music, they all started on the grime scene and have influenced many underground artists just as So Solid Crew did for them a decade ago.

History lesson over. One thing runs common in all of the names listed above, and that thing is that they are all male. Indeed, of all the success stories of the past decade, the closest thing to a successful female in grime music are So Solid's Lisa Maffia, who had a couple of top 20 singles in '03, now a reality show rent-a-contestant, N-Dubz singer Tulisa, who doesn't really count considering she moonlights as a judge on the most successful show on British TV and Lady Sovereign, who seemed to be too poppy for the urban market, too urban for the pop market, which led to her eventually slipping away to join Maffia on the reality TV circuit. Sov was a real shame in my opinion, I personally think she was a case of wrong place, wrong time. In 2004, no-one knew how to market her but I think the music landscape of 2011 could easily find a place for her. Look at Robyn, Jessie J or Cher Lloyd for proof.

But, the female MC who has perhaps come closer than any to achieving mainstream success is Hackney's very own Shystie. In 2004, her single "One Wish" scraped in at number 40 on the charts, which isn't as weak as it seems considering the single had zero radio airplay, instead gaining attention on legendary low-budget music station Channel U. Her debut album "Diamond In The Dirt" was released shortly afterwards, which was probably expected to have a little more of an impact than it actually did. My personal highlight is when Shystie spends an entire track complaining about how life is so hard now she is a star, which I found funny because at no point was Shystie ever even close to being a star. Around the album's release, Shystie was immortalized in pixel form, "starring" as a character in Juiced, a computer game about fast obnoxious cars which had a TV ad condoning sexual assault toward women. Well done everyone.

"Crime and Tube - Shy's got the London look"

Shystie's music career meant that she had a lot of free time, time she filled by doing some acting work in an innovative TV show called Dubplate Drama. Shystie seemingly plays herself with a different name, a struggling female MC whose life is controlled by the show's viewers, who vote between two different scenarios, the winner being used in the following episode. The show also employed a second gimmick, roping in various guest stars from the grime scene in cameo appearances. Three seasons of Dubplate Drama were made, the most recent in 2009, and Shystie also made an appearance in gritty urban drama Adulthood. Since then, she has used the internet to released a few tracks, mixtapes et cetera, including a freestyle rap over Tinie Tempah's hit Pass Out which was reasonably impressive.

Any mention of Shystie would not be complete without taking a minute to celebrate what is, in my opinion, her greatest achievement to date, the absolutely brutal diss track she released a couple of years ago. A rival MC, Lady Fury, had dropped a diss about Shystie, which led to Shystie recording a truly astonishing riposte, a six-minute burst of relentless put-downs, accusations and downright insults over the beat to 50 Cent's Candy Shop. Fury is dismissed as "a transvestite fat dyke", her parents referred to as child molesters and racists, her very conception called "one date rape which made a mixed-race ape" and to top it all off, an actual recording of Fury getting booed off stage during a gig is played in full (she deserved it, she sounds fucking awful). These examples really are the tip of the iceberg, I'd urge anyone who is into this kind of thing and with a few minutes to spare to give this a proper listen, it's well worth it. My words can't even do justice to how hard Shystie goes.