Turning her attention away from a large salad that’s just been served up at a hip east London café, Speech Debelle turns her focus to the politics of her lyrics. It’s a question that the young London-based poet-rapper is used to. With albums such as 2009 Mercury Prize-winning Speech Therapy and this year’s Freedom of Speech catapulting her into the limelight, Debelle – in reality, 29-year-old Corynne Elliot – is known for lyrics that reflect the gritty mess of life. Civil unrest, racism, homelessness: all are grist to her mill.
‘The thing is, we don’t call it politics,’ she says. ‘We call it life. I’m a black British woman and these are the things that happen to me in Britain.’
