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By Monique Needham

You may not know about this young and fresh female MC, but this might just jog your memory: ‘All up in my hair, thinks that I care/ Follows me here, follows me there/ These days I can’t go no where.’ Got it yet? The voice you heard on that Dizzee Rascal track, ‘I Luv U’, was in fact, Hackney’s finest, Shystie. You heard her voice in 2003 but she is on a mission to make sure you know her face in 2005.

The first person to speak was neither Shystie nor I, but one of her boys who said, “You can’t ask her anything personal, just her name and age.” Then he started laughing. I knew it was all just jokes when Shystie smiled and said, “Ignore him.”

The nickname ‘Shystie’, meaning sweet but cheeky, has stuck with the rising star ever since her school days. At only 21-years-old, she has so much to share with the world with her super speed, ‘don’t-give-a-damn’ lyrics. She wants to be known as a ‘female MC with a fast flow’ and she is definitely right on that one. Don’t let tunes that display her calm, laid back flow like ‘Make It Easy’ or ‘Unfinished Business’ delude you about her spitting ability.

No doubt about it, Shystie has had enough practice and has been on the scene long enough to be classed as a heavy MC, but it has not been an easy road to fame. She has been ‘spitting with the boys ever since sixth form’ but in an industry dominated by men, she must have faced some difficulties. Inspired by the likes of Eve, Missy Elliot and Busta Rhymes, Shystie was the only female MC amongst the group of boys she used to emcee with, and this definitely had its downfalls. “There were boys that didn’t want to give me time,” told Shystie. “I even used to phone up radio stations asking them if I could spit. One radio station told me that there was a year waiting list just to spit on air. I emceed on another station and the station that wanted me to wait a year then told me that they wanted me spit.”

Obstacles like these can easily make a person doubt their own abilities and dent their confidence, but Shystie’s pure determination got her through these times, and her inspirations made her continue fighting for her dream. She made a name for herself on the streets, and it’s to the underground scene that Shystie owes part of her success. “The whole underground scene is your backbone and the way to break into the industry. It’s how you build up your name, especially in raves. It’s not something that should be taken for granted because if it was not for the underground scene, how would people even know who you are?”

So what is it that inspires Shystie? “Everything inspires me, from the haters who tried to put me down to my boys around me,” she said. She talks about her life and upbringing in Hackney in her songs, with lines like: ‘You don’t know about the life that I got/ You don’t know what it’s like to live in my slot’. She is very expressive and says what she feels, describing her lyrics as being very ‘in your face’. Some may describe them as being controversial for the topics she chooses to rhyme about, highlighting the lower points in life that people may not want to hear about; the ‘real’ things in life.

This East London lady is proud of her hometown, and in her video for ‘Make It Easy’, we see ‘HACKNEY’ in big capital letters instead of the big ‘HOLLYWOOD’ sign. She is definitely making sure everyone knows that she has not forgotten her roots. “‘Diamond in the Dirt’ is me finally making my mark on the world. I’m reppin’ my ends all the way; I’m doing this for all the ladies out there.”

Ever since Shystie has blown up, she has had an influence on many young girls. ‘When I am out I have young girls coming up to me saying, ‘You’re my role model’ and ‘You’re my idol’. It’s nice to have that and know that you’re appreciated,” told the 21-year-old. However, she knows that she has to be sensible in everything she does, admitting, “I have a responsibility now that I am in the public eye.”

Shystie may be living her dream, (emceeing, releasing her first single and having a debut album out), but so many more opportunities keep coming her way. For example, Shystie signed a sponsorship deal with mobile network O2, and also appears in the computer game ‘Juiced’, which features the track of the same name from her album. Although the game’s release has been indefinitely delayed, Shystie is proud of her role in it. “The funny thing is, I didn’t even approach them,” she explained. “They came to my management asking for a UK artist to feature in the game, someone who was not very well established yet, so when my management asked me, I was like, ‘Hell yeah!’” The role Shystie has in the street racing computer game is that of gang leader. In order to develop her character, the makers of ‘Juiced’ needed to take several pictures of her in order to make the character more accurate. “It felt like they were taking mug shots,” she said. “They needed to get pictures from every angle, and I even had to do voiceovers.” For these voiceovers, Shystie had already been given a script with a set of prepared lines to say. “The stuff they wanted me to say were off-key. They wanted me to say things like, ‘Step off my land’, things that I just don’t say! So I asked them if I could change it up, and they were fine with it.” If Shystie was to feature in any game, she was definitely going to make it sound more like her feisty self.

Shystie is pure, new UK talent and someone you should definitely keep your eye on in 2005. She has been working with The Streets and even the Wu Tang Clan, so don’t underestimate her talent or ambition. She no longer has just the ‘street fame’ but has a wider public appeal now that she’s signed to a major label deal with Polydor. Watch this space, because with her unique triple rhyming style on her debut album ‘Diamond In The Dirt’, Miss Calica has well and truly stepped onto the scene, and she’s making sure her presence is felt.

‘Diamond in the Dirt’ is in stores now.