Grime?the latest incarnation of the polymorphous London garage scene?hasn’t yet taken the charts by storm as predicted. And evidently seen by her label as a next-generation Ms Dynamite, here Chanelle “Shystie” Calica tries to straddle underground credibility and more assimilable pop-rap. And, as is usual with this sort of thing. it doesn’t entirely work. There’s no doubting the potency of tracks like “Step Bac”, reverberating with grime’s adventurous mix of rawness, ballistics and the baroque. But a misfiring Kanye West-style overhaul of “Make It Easy On Yourself” suggests that, for now, Shystie may be happier ‘keeping it gutter’ than manoeuvring into the mainstream.
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