Venomous vocalist Shygirl makes music that is unapologetically London. As she put it in a recent issue of Dazed, “My next release brings British rap vibes as well as the weird, dark underground club scene... But the way it comes together is more pop.” As a member of genre-blurring club collective NUXXE – who sit together on this year’s Dazed 100 – she’s an essential part of the emerging underground musicians breathing new life onto the city’s dancefloors.
In a short film produced by Dazed and YouTube Music, the artist (real name Blane Muise) explains why the city inspires her: “I think I’ve written every song on the bus or the tube,” she says. “I love the clash of culture; every single area of London offers such a different opportunity or a different way of like, living or being.”
To celebrate her placement on the Dazed 100, Muise has created a brand new playlist for Dazed Digital tracing her personal musical history. Some of her chosen tracks show her deep connection to London’s club roots – like Benga's unmistakable dubstep masterpiece “E Trips”, and a surreal ballad from staple London DJ Larry B. Others are more about digging into Shygirl’s own state of mind: like Yaeji’s bright and bouncing anthem “raingurl”, and Bjork’s “Hunter”, which Shygirl reflects “was so dark and weird to me when I first heard it as a kid. I used to play it and pretend I was an evil character in my own movie.”
Download the YouTube Music app here, and listen to Shygirl’s playlist here.
Director: Buster Grey-Jung
DOP: Joseph Guy
Sound Recordist: Morgan Williams
Groomer: Natalie Shafii
Editor: Somayeh Jafari
Colourist: Tom Mangham
Interview: Emily Dinsdale