By Chloe McCloskey

“I’m lucky I’m on a label that gives me creative freedom, but at the same time the industry wants you to bend over and take it. My band and I did a session at one of those big institution type of places and the attitude we got was pretty shocking, like, ‘You’re not allowed to speak but you’re allowed to play your song for 3.5 minutes.’ It was like we were the entertainment for the day – that sort of watermelon-eating, tap dancing shit. Do you bend over and take it? Or refuse and risk messing up your career?”

“I’m not black enough for certain black radio stations – I’ve never been played by Choice FM, and it was started in Brixton! That’s some local shit! I’m young, I’m black, I’m from south London – I’m putting in work to make a career for myself – why wouldn’t you wanna play me? Even if you don’t like the shit, shouldn’t you be providing a platform? How many other rappers are there like me? It’s not like I’m Sugababes and there are a hundred Sugababes.

“If I don’t fit into a box then some people just can’t deal with it. Choice FM can’t deal with the fact that I’m not some cheesy RnB or on some gangsta shit either. Choice FM was bought by a huge company so a middle-aged white man is likely deciding what’s black enough to be on that black station. So he decides whether I’m black enough! It’s alright though because I’m still getting a lot of praise. For everything that annoys me about the business, there is something great that makes up for it.”

(Check out the next issue of HHC Digital on May 14th for the full uncut Speech Debelle interview.)