Speech Debelle

Speech Debelle
Born	1983 (age 40–41)

Corynne Elliot (born 1983, London, England), better known as Speech Debelle, is a British rapper currently signed to the Big Dada record label. She was the winner of the 2009 Mercury Prize.

Early life

Debelle spent time in hostels in London while estranged from her mother, although admitting keeping in regular contact. She left home aged 19 and lived in homeless hostels as well as living with friends Now reconciled, Speech cites these as the formative years for creating her ambition and material. She attended Harris City Academy, and from the age of 9 she began writing poetry. She returned to her mother's house age 23 and began calling record labels, eventually being signed by Big Dada records.

Drawing inspiration from Michael Jackson and in particular the song "Human Nature", Speech started rapping. Back then, other inspiration came courtesy of Blackstreet, Mary J. Blige, TLC and reggae music.

Speech Therapy (2009)

Debelle's debut album, Speech Therapy, was released in the United Kingdom on 31 May 2009. The album was led by a white label limited release of "Searching", thereafter the album had three singles released, "The Key", "Better Days" featuring Micachu, "Go Then, Bye" and finally "Spinning". Recorded mostly in Australia and engineered by Wayne Lotek, the album documenting her formative years in London.

"The Key" won Best Budget Video for Pop, Dance, Urban at the UK Music Video Awards in 2009

In 2009, she performed at Glastonbury Festival.

Her 2009 Glastonbury appearance was also accompanied with her first live TV performance of "Searching". As the broadcast was made the after Michael Jackson died, after the song she gave her sentiments to a formative figure to her artistry. Later in the year during an interview with The Guardian, when asked what/who she could bring back to life, she answered Michael Jackson.

On 21 July 2009 Speech Therapy was announced as one of the twelve shortlisted albums for the year's Mercury Music Award. She won the 2009 Mercury Prize with Speech Therapy, beating albums from The Horrors, Florence and the Machine, Kasabian and Friendly Fires, among others.

Further praise came from the then editor of the Guardian Music Podcast, Paul Macinnes who nominated Speech Therapy as his favourite album of 2009. OHM Monthly cited Speech's work as "biggest thing in UK hip-hop for many a long years",.

The Times praised the production of the album and awarded the album the place of being the 76th best album of the 2000s. In the US her critical acclaim continued as Pitchfork gave a favourable review praising her relaxed, conversational delivery., although her planned US performance debut, on 5 November 2009, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, had to be called off, claimed to be due to visa problems.

Despite the Mercury Prize win, sales of Speech Therapy were low; with the album notable for having the worst-ever chart showing and performance by a Mercury winner; failing to make the top 40 and only 10,000 units sold by November 2009, in comparison to the 300,000+ album sales of the 2008 winner, Elbow's The Seldom Seen Kid and 2010's winners The xx, whose winning album xx went platinum shortly after winning the award. Debelle quit the Big Dada record label in November 2009, blaming them for failing to adequately market and distribute the album, but a few months later said "as an artist, you get upset with your label, you get upset with your team. I'm entitled to do that. In the same way, they are entitled to get upset with me.... If we're all on the same page, it's all good." Her post-Mercury music gigs were sparsely attended and received mixed to poor reviews.

In November 2009 she was booed off the stage at a Take That event to promote their SingStar game, after attempting to rap to their 1993 hit "Pray" and claiming she "did it better than Take That".

In March 2010 Speech Debelle teamed up with Bonobo to co-write and sing on the song "Sun Will Rise", taken from Ninja Tune's 'XX' Boxset. In August 2011, Speech gave away a new track, "Blaze Up A Fire", via her Soundcloud page. The track, also featuring Roots Manuva and Realism, dealt with matters Speech felt had come to a head with the 2011 England riots.

I feel it could give insight into the hearts and minds of some of the people that have taken part in, not only the peaceful marches for Mark Duggan in Tottenham and the Smiley Culture march for justice, but also I believe it speaks of the frustration of many young people who took part in the rioting and the consequent looting over London and areas of the UK. I am not attempting to condone, I'm attempting to be a voice of understanding.

— Speech Debelle (9 August 2011)

Debelle's track "Spinnin" has been re-worked by Tinchy Stryder and Dionne Bromfield and will be used as one of the official anthems of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. In February 2012, Debelle released her follow-up album, entitled Freedom of Speech, via Big Dada records (the label to which she returned in 2011). The album prompted Trebuchet Magazine to describe Debelle as 'a fiery, if naïve, seeker of justice and truth' and featured the aforementioned 'Blaze Up a Fire' as well as lead single 'Studio Backpack'.

Charitable work

In August 2009, Debelle performed at Africa Express in Paris, an event set up by Blur and Gorillaz front-man Damon Albarn.

In 2009, Speech appeared alongside Gary Barlow, David Arnold and Jimmy Carr for a CARE charity concert in aid of youth education. She was also invited to 10 Downing Street to celebrate "British Talent", in association with the Talent and Enterprise Taskforce.

In 2010, Speech was a guest speaker at the Progressive London conference alongside Ken Livingston MP, Sadiq Khan MP, and other notable academics. The annual conference explores and discusses the application of liberal politics to the benefit of London. Her liberal stance on ethnic diversity was also lent to the Hope Not Hate campaign. Debelle also teamed teamed up with Saatchi & Saatchi on the User Voice campaign, giving disadvantaged youth a platform in Parliament.

In early 2011 Speech took part in a photography project set up by Oxfam and photographer Martin Parr, which help spread awareness about climate change.

Speech began teaming up with Chuka Umunna the MP for Streatham on her community work to speak about the importance of voting. She has also volunteered with Barnardo's to promote youth inclusion through a project to deliver an alternate Christmas Day video message to their elders on YouTube, as well as writing about gender equality for the VSO Godmothers blog. On 4 October 2011 Debelle was part of the Young Voter's Question Time panel during the Conservative Party Conference in Salford.

External links

• Speech Debelle Interviewed by Sophie Elmhirst on New Statesman