Chanelle 'Shystie' Calica has come a very long way in a very short time, from the obscurity of pirate radio to becoming the hottest new property on the UK hip-hop scene. To judge from the angry tone of her debut album, she's not actually all that happy about it - one track even takes the form of a skit of a daytime TV chatshow, featuring the sharp-tongued Hackney girl bitterly refuting all the press's assumptions about her. It's a pity she spends so much time on this stuff because when she broadens her horizons, Shystie is a truly impressive talent - smart, funny and a dazzlingly rapid rhymer (she claims to be the fastest MC in Britain). Diamond in the Dirt also proves that her music isn't as one-dimensional as her detractors have claimed, containing touches of gospel, soul, electro and even opera. So watch out Ms Dynamite - there's a challenger to your garage throne, and she doesn't sound as if she's going to take no for an answer.
