The full title of this article by Panashe Nyadundu (The Guardian) is “‘Young, Black and female in Brixton is hard’: from football to Top Boy and wordplay, the inspiring journey of UK rapper Cristale.” Nyadundu writes, “Crystal Palace FC or Oxbridge beckoned, but the multitalented MC kept forging her way towards music. She explains how she poured every aspect of herself into her debut mixtape.”
Two weeks before we meet, UK rapper Cristale was scrambling down a cliff face to a secluded black pebbled beach in Dover, racing an incoming tide with fewer than 90 minutes to shoot the video for her single I’m Okay with Being Lonely. She’d never hiked before in her life. “I was wearing head-to-toe Stone Island, no hiking gear, full face of makeup, edges laid and Mum was doing my touch-ups on a rusty ladder,” she laughs.
As we sit in her publicist’s central London office, her hair half-braided and half-flowing past a black puffer coat, she says the rush of adrenaline hasn’t fully faded. In fact, she seems to thrive on regular bumps of it: beyond her relentlessly articulate and energetic rap flow – put to work on tracks that span drill, introspective R&B and beyond – she has ably hopped between football, art, acting in Netflix projects and more.
Already with nearly half a million monthly listeners on Spotify alone, the 25-year-old has just released her debut mixtape, Clear Intentions. It’s her third attempt at a full-length project, but the first she has actually finished. “There’s no fillers, no bridges in between songs,” she says. “I’m very nitpicky with my art.”
Born and raised in Brixton, to a Guyanese father and half-Jamaican, half-Montserratian mother who doubles as her manager – “close is an understatement”, she says of their relationship – Cristale’s first taste of songwriting arrived in nursery when her uncle taught her how to rap. [. . .]
Alongside her art and illustration degree, with plans to become an architectural designer, she juggled university with 40-hour work weeks at a Chelsea boutique and idly posted freestyle raps to Instagram. “It was just a hobby at first, and a reason for me to spend time with my dad.” He pushed and helped her to record them properly and, by 21, she’d signed a record deal. As she began to gain momentum, she kept up the pace, partly to honour her parents, but also to prove the doubters wrong. “Young, Black and female in Brixton is hard … you look a certain type of way, you’re categorised into a certain type of group of kids.” There have been “multiple moments”, she says; some teachers didn’t want her on their courses, assuming she’d fail. “The least I could do was block out all of the external noise, and care about myself how my mum has always cared about me,’ she says. [. . .]
For full article, see https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/nov/11/cristale-uk-rapper-actor-clear-intentions-mixtape [Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item to our attention.]
Follow Cristale on https://www.therealcristale.com and https://www.instagram.com/cristaleyy
[Photo by Ejiro Dafé: ‘Young, black and female in Brixton is hard’ … Cristale.]