Speech Debelle

Corynne Elliot (born 17 March 1983), better known as Speech Debelle, is a British rapper formerly signed to the Big Dada record label.

Corynne Elliot was born in 1983 in London, England, and was raised by her mother in a middle-class Jamaican household in London, south of the River Thames.

She attended Harris City Academy, and at age 9 began writing poetry.

While she wanted to be a singer, she disliked her singing voice when younger, so decided to try rapping at age 13.

Within a week other students in her class had learned all her lyrics.

At age 16, writing became an emotional outlet for her.

Debelle drew inspiration from Michael Jackson and in particular the song "Human Nature", as well as Blackstreet, Mary J. Blige, TLC and reggae music.

She left home after arguing with her mother at the age of 19, and for three years Debelle lived in London in either homeless hostels or with friends.

While estranged from her mother at the time, she has said she did keep in regular contact.

Now reconciled with her mother, Speech cites these years as formative in developing her ambition and material.

Debelle returned to her mother's house at age 23 and began calling record labels.

The Times praised the production of the album and named it the 76th best album of the 2000s.

In November 2007 she was signed by Big Dada records, a small imprint of Ninja Tune.

She has said the label helped her develop artistically, and gave her complete creative control of her music.

She was the winner of the 2009 Mercury Prize for her debut album Speech Therapy.

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, the album was created by Debelle, Wayne Lotek and Plutonic Lab (who produced "The Key and "Better Days"), and Big Dada founder Will Ashon, the album documented her formative years in London. She has cited her biggest influences on the album as he biggest inspiration for the first album was Tracy Chapman and Meshell Ndegeocello. Unlike many other hip hop albums, the tracks eschew the use of samples and rely instead on live instrumentals.

"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 day 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 became the first woman to win the award in seven years.

Speech Therapy was considered an upset to more well-known competitors including The Horrors, Florence and the Machine, Kasabian and Friendly Fires.

After the win, sales of Speech Therapy were comparatively low to other Mercury winners.

Despite the Mercury Prize win, 10,000 units of Speech Therapy were 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 (300,000+) shortly after winning the award.

Debelle reportedly quit the Big Dada record label in November 2009, blaming them for failing to adequately market and distribute the album.

A few months later, she 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."

In March 2011 she performed three songs from the album for Canal Street TV in France.

Debelle reunited with Big Dada Recordings in 2011 to work on her second album entitled Freedom of Speech.

OHM Monthly cited Speech's work as "biggest thing in UK hip-hop for many a long year".

She released her second album, Freedom of Speech on Big Dada in 2012 and her third album, tantil before i breathe independently in 2017.

Debelle's single from Speech Therapy, "Spinnin" has been re-worked by Tinchy Stryder and Dionne Bromfield and was used as one of the official anthems of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

She has also been politically and socially active with a number of charities and movements, and hosted the BBC documentary Hidden Homeless in 2012.

Debelle's single from the Speech Therapy, "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.

As of 2012, the album has sold 15,000 copies.

The album peaked on the UK Albums Chart at 65.