Ms Dynamite: The rap artist

Official Post Date: Sunday 21 July 2002

Ms Dynamite (Niomi McLean-Daley), 21, has just released her debut album. Her latest single 'It Takes More' has been a huge hit this summer

I never imagined that I'd be where I am now. My parents separated and my mum was diagnosed with cancer when I was 13. She is a very strong woman and never let anyone see it getting to her, but it affected me because I felt I had to act like a parent to my younger brother and sister.

I hated school. A lot of the kids were racist and the teachers weren't much better. But my mum is white and she made it clear that not everyone is like that and we shouldn't be like that to them.

I moved into a hostel when I was 15. I needed space to be my age again, but even when I was there my mum would nag me about doing my homework. I never stopped studying and was determined to achieve something.

Music was like escaping from everything. I've written songs since I was 14. I sang in school plays and concerts, but it was a fluke that I fell into the business. I had a gap year waiting to go to Sussex University to study social anthropology. I always enjoyed mucking about at parties MC-ing, and a man who ran a pirate radio station offered me a weekly MC slot.

I started doing raves for £25 a time, but a lot of men in the industry made it hard for me. Then I moved to Freek FM and everything was cool. I knew I'd make my mark. I signed with Polydor just as I was due to start at university.

I feel I do have a responsibility and I am not going to get up on stage and make songs I wouldn't appreciate my little sister listening to. I tell young girls to work hard and get an education, even though I thought school was a load of shit; and I hope they see me as an intelligent woman who doesn't have to get her tits out to be noticed.

I'd love to have a million and one children but I don't even have a boyfriend and I'm not in the position where I could offer them everything I want. I left the hostel and moved back in with my mum a year ago. It's really nice to be back in a family environment.