Lady Leshurr is one of those who, recently, benefited from the resurgence of grime. Over the last few months, with others such as Skepta or Stormzy, the British rapper caught the attention of her American peers, through her "Queen's Speech" freestyle series. The fourth of them made it to a Samsung commercial, exposing her to a large audience. And in recent interviews, she mentioned potential collaborations with US heavyweights like Bangladesh and Timbaland.
It is not the first time, though, that Lady Leshurr looks like a rising star, or that America pays attention to her. It happened already by 2011, with her third – or maybe her fourth – mixtape: Friggin L. This was such a defining release for her, that later on she named her own clothing brand after it.
Back then, the mixtape is mostly noticed for her take on Chris Brown's "Look At Me Now". Her video is a parody of the original one, and it buzzes on the Internet, catching the eyes of celebrities like Lil Wayne and Trey Songz. Lady Leshurr's notoriety expands even further, with the success of her "Blazin’" single, a collaboration with production duo Torqux. By then, she is proposed attracting deals by major labels. But she declines such offers, apparently unhappy that they want to position her as a British rival to Nicki Minaj.
This background story tells us something about Lady Leshurr: even though she is associated to the UK grime scene, she has a strong US appeal. After being an actress in a movie about gangs (1 Day) around 2009, she relocated to London, and she'd been acknowledged by grime rappers as one of them. Her style, made for a large part of freestyles delivered in a double-time mode on IDM-sounding beats – she even collaborated with electronic music veterans like Orbital – was quite close to theirs. However, when she was still Melesha O'Garro, a citizen of Birmingham, she had been primarily influenced by the likes of Eminem, Missy Elliott and Busta Rhymes, in their most extravagant moments. As a result, her music is heavily influenced by such Americans.
This is obvious on Friggin L. This traditional kind of mixtape – it compiles freestyles over existing songs – does not only appropriate Chris Brown's music. As early as on the first track, with her impressive fast flow, the rapper rides Rick Ross' anthological "B.M.F". She does the same with Lil Wayne and Cory Gunz's "6 Foot 7 Foot". And then, with "Pizzin' On 'Em", putting aside her usual style of rap, she emulates Nicki Minaj's on the music of "Did It On 'Em". It is only by the end, on "Touch A Follow Button", that Lady Leshurr recalls where she is from. This Englishwoman of Caribbean descent switches to dancehall music. And she turns 100% grime again over Tinchy Stryder's "Game Over".
It is the second time that Lady Leshurr plays with that track. Along with a bunch of other UK female rappers (Cherri V, Ruff Diamonds, A Dot, Envy, Lioness, Baby Blue, RoXXXan, Mz Bratt), she had used it one year earlier, for a powerful feminist anthem. But this time, with the Friggin L mixtape, it is her own manifesto that she delivers.