Naz Hamdi, a heritage and music professional from Newham, sits down with fellow east Londoner, Shystie, artist, actress and creative content producer to talk all things Dubplate Drama alongside her career journey from musician to content producer…
buy your ticket today!
- Wednesday 18th March, doors from 6.30pm, event starts 7pm.
- Talent House, 3 Sugar House Lane, London E15 2QS.
- Tickets only £5 from UDtickets.com.
“My name is Naz Hamdi but most people know me as NazfromNewham and I’m a heritage and music professional, storyteller and curator from east London. Over the years I’ve worked across music, film, nightlife and heritage and focus on documentation and preservation.”
“The conversation will be centred on celebrating Shystie as a trailblazer in music, television and lots more. Throughout her career she has always been breaking records and thinking out of the box. We will be talking all things from how Shystie’s life changed instantly from the “I Luv U” response, debut album, Diamond in the Dirt, Dubplate Drama’s 20th anniversary and what inspired her to be creative from the jump to what she has been up to now as a content producer.”
Shystie emerged from the UK underground a year after Ms. Dynamite had paved the way for home-grown female MCs. Fast-paced rapper Shystie was described as the first lady of grime.
Born Chanelle Shiloh in Hackney, London in 1983 to a Bajan mother and Grenadian father, she grew up listening to her parents’ lovers rock and dancehall records before enrolling on a sound engineering course in order to understand the business of music-making. Following an appearance on pirate radio station Freek FM, she was invited to perform on there, then onto headlining a tour of under-21 raves and was anle to generate interest from various record companies thanks to her white-label response to Dizzee Rascal’s breakthrough hit “I Luv U.“
After signing to Polydor in 2004, she reached the Top 40 with her first single, and released her first album, . In the same year, she supported Basement Jaxx, 50 Cent and The Streets on their UK tours, received a nomination for Best Newcomer at the MOBO Awards, and appeared as a character in the racing video game Juiced.
In 2005, she switched her attention to acting after landing the lead role of aspiring MC, Dionne, in Dubplate Drama, an interactive series (now celebrating it’s 20 year anniversary in 2026) which allowed viewers to vote on the outcome of each episode’s ending, and later appeared in box-office number one movie Adulthood, also writing the theme song for it.
Tickets £5 from UDtickets.com.
