Interview: Lady Chann

Words by Jim Ottewill  Photograph by Jodi Burian

“I  can talk,” deadpans Lady Chann, Chanelle Williams, the new queen of UK dancehall. She’s not wrong. She whizzes through our chat at breakneck speed, her motor-mouth spitting out words as fast as the rhymes she rides on the mic.

She’s here to discuss ‘Sticky Situation’ — a big tune made in cahoots with garage producer and Ms Dynamite collaborator, Sticky. It slayed dances last year and is now re-emerging with a bassline-based pimping from Sheffield wonderkid Toddla T, and this time the raves are going even wilder.

“Last year was the first time a lot of people had heard of me,” says Lady Chann, “and many of those people would not necessarily be into dancehall.” Doing the rounds with northwest London’s Suncycle crew, who have worked with artists as disparate as Sizzla and pop-rockers Texas, and of which she is an original member, has certainly helped.

I first clocked her ladyship at last year’s Major Lazer Notting Hill Carnival party with Toddla. She was on the mic leading the chaos by egging on a crowd high on sunshine and free energy drinks. “That day was just pure fun,” she reminisces, grinning. “Obviously the free booze helped. It was a never-ending line of rum, Red Bull, rum, Red Bull, rum, Red Bull. I had a gig straight after in Leeds and that’s when I felt ill — really ill. A messy business.”

Her sunny demeanour can’t be dampened by meeting on a pissy Thursday eve in Islington, and not least because 2010 is shaping up very nicely for Lady Chann. Alongside her recent Dun Dem Season mixtape, which features Warrior One, L-Vis 1990, Serocee and Toddla, there’s a debut album in the pipeline. But it’s the reheeling of ‘Sticky Situation’ that’s currently turning the most heads.

“Sticky heard the hook and didn’t even realise it was me singing it,” she explains. “He said, ‘This is next level! Get in and vocal it,’ and the track worked out. But it’s weird thinking, ‘You’re the buzz,’ when it’s just little old me. What I do is normal and not ‘wow’. Those who I think have the ‘wow factor’ are surgeons or dentists. I’m just grateful to have got here.”

Her loveliness in person contrasts sharply with her fiery onstage persona. We watch her at the Old Blue Last in east London where she smashes it with venomous renditions of ‘Sticky Situation’ and ‘Eye Too Fast (Fugitive Riddim)’. This lady may be well mannered, but she’s certainly no wallflower.

“I’m not shy — I’ll tell you what I want and I don’t care what you think of me,” she concludes.

The world of dancehall, and beyond, needs to get ready.

Related: