Speech Debelle: 'I'm a rapper'

Speech Debelle has said that she considers herself to be a rapper and MC.

The Mercury Prize winner also told The Guardian that her label supported her when she first spoke to them about the style she wanted for her debut Speech Therapy.

Debelle said: "I'm a rapper, an MC. I love the art of MCing, some of my favourite songs are by rappers - but I have a lot of other interests as well, and I think that shows on the album.

"At the first meeting about the album I told them, 'I think it's like a hip-hop Tracy Chapman'. They should have said OK, thanks for seeing us, don't let the door hit you on the way out - most labels would - but they didn't, they said OK, let's try it, let's see what happens."

She added: "[Other influences were] Meshell Ndegeocello, particularly her album Bitter; the DMX song 'Slippin''; Tupac's 'Brenda's Got a Baby'... it was particular songs. And Michael Jackson.

"Actually, Michael Jackson's song 'Human Nature' turned into 'Daddy's Little Girl', that was the song we were trying to recreate. If you play those two songs together, the beginning is exactly the same."