Describing her sound as “really bassy, hard-hitting, dancehall, and hip-hop infused fun”, 2017 might be the year of Nadia Rose takeover. Mr Orange (Lowup) will be spinning records before and after.
Born June 11th 1993, Nadia Rose is a young UK rapper from West Croydon, London. Alongside the likes of Little Simz and Lady Leshurr, she's part of a groundswell of female voices in the male-dominated world of UK hip-hop and grime. Growing up in a musical environment, her Jamaican dad, a dancehall DJ and MC, instilled in her a love of music by playing Capleton, Beenie Man and Sizzla around the house. Nadia is also known as Michael Omari’s cousin, who makes grime under the name Stormzy. After studying Music Business at university and holding down a job at a betting house, her male contemporaries (Section Boyz, Bonkaz and Stormzy) were starting to break through. Realising her job was holding her back, she packed it in to pursue music full-time.
In 2015, surrounded by a solid group of friends and peers, Nadia Rose began to get serious. The same year her breakthrough video “Station” was shot without permission at a local railway station. By late 2015 she had released “D.F.W.T” her first viral track, racking up plays and the attention of major labels, and soon after she was approached by Relentless Records, a subsidiary of Sony, who signed her. 2016 saw Nadia Rose launching into the live aspect of her music, by playing at major U.K festivals including Glastonbury, stepping up on stage to replace Azealia Banks, performing alongside Anderson Paak and opening for rap-legend Busta Rhymes. This year Nadia Rose has taken the fifth place on the prestigious BBC’s Sound of 2017 list, and released her debut EP Highly Flammable on the 13th January 2017.
