Because we love to read stories about islandistas doing well and even better yet, doing well against the odds... today we bring to you... Speech Debelle.
Who's she?
Well, just the under-underdog winner of one of the most prestigious awards in British music - the Mercury Prize.
Her story is the break-out, fairytale story of this year's prize, which went down last week.
With just 1500 copies of her album Speech Therapy sold thus far, the underground rapper burst into the mainstream when she won the Mercury, which is given for the best album in the United Kingdom.
Speech Debelle came up as Corynne Elliot (so much more West Indian sounding, isn't it?) in South London. Her back story is unfortunately, not that unusual among British Caribbean people. She was born to Jamaican parents. Her father left her mother when Corynne/Speech was 6 years old. He went on to be the village (or council?) ram, having eight more children with six women.
