Name: Nicole Blakk

Where She’s From: London-born, Essex-raised

When She Started: 2017

Genre: Afro-Rap/R&B/Grime

File Next To: JayaHadADream, Wohdee, Lioness

Sounds Like: “I’m a multilingual, soulful singer with rap, Afro and R&B influences. It has a classic soulful foundation with bars that will fly over your head! I just want to sing good songs with good rap bars.”

First Music That Inspired Her: “When I was 7 years old, I was obsessed with ‘Mad’ by Ne-Yo. Even as a kid, I was really emotional, and the opening of that music video always stayed with me. I didn’t understand the meaning of the song at the time, but it made me cry, in a good way. It was strange because I didn’t know why a song was making me feel so much, but I didn’t feel bad—I felt connected. That was the first moment I thought, ‘I want to write something that makes people feel the way this makes me feel.’ The video and the song together felt like pure art.”

It doesn’t get much more eclectic than Nicole Blakk, the rapidly ascending star whom you might recognise from Dave’s No. 1 album, The Boy Who Played The Harp. Her music blends Afro influences, rap, grime and R&B, and employs multiple languages—including English, French and Punjabi (she also speaks Hindi, which she learned so she could speak to her local shopkeeper). Her mum wasted no time schooling an infant Nicole in the modern classics, soundtracking her earliest years with as much music as possible.

“My mum played a huge mix of genres,” she tells TRENCH. “We had both a vinyl player and a cassette player in our flat in Luton, so I grew up with all sorts of sounds. One track I remember clearly is ‘Do You Really Like It?’ by DJ Pied Piper; I was only 2 years old when it came out. When we later moved to Watford, I started listening to loads of N-Dubz, Katy Perry, Pink, Jessie J and Akon on my computer after school. I loved all of it, even though it was all so different.” Nicole also cites Michael Jackson as a key influence, calling him “undoubtedly the single person who influenced my music taste as a young girl.” She’s quick to caveat, though. While she was wowed by his still-unmatched starpower and the mystique surrounding him, it was more than entertainment for her: “His music demonstrated to me how deeply music can impact people’s lives, and I would love to have that.”

When we press her on her plans for the future, her debut album is at the forefront of the conversation, but there’s an undeniable drive to do something bigger with her many talents. “I want something that shows the depth of my music ability, something that tells a real story, something that spans multiple genres and languages, that talks to youngsters, that shows the sound of young London,” she explains. And the dominoes are starting to fall: just two months ago, the world at large was introduced to Nicole Blakk’s precocious talent when she collaborated with Dave on The Boy Who Played The Harp extract “Fairchild”, and appearances at Glastonbury and SXSW (she performed as part of TRENCH’s Grime 3.0 takeover) have all but sealed it.

After such a high-profile, high-pressure introduction, Nicole Blakk is amped and ready for the global stage. Her latest single, “Let Go (Lâcher)”, is essentially a calling card, putting all those talents proudly on display, and she continues to shine in live settings, most recently holding her own in a cypher with Chip, Frisco and Shorty. Whatever she has planned for the coming year, she can at least consider her mettle well and truly proven.