Nadia Rose was placed fifth on the BBC's Sound Of 2017 list, and kicked off that year - two weeks into January - with her debut album 'Highly Flammable'. Featuring tracks like the excellent single 'Skwod', it was easy to see why expectations were high. But in a year when her cousin Stormzy's career went stratospheric, her own failed to spark in the same way - although as she spent much of 2017 writing for Rihanna, it wasn't exactly a disaster.
A fairly steady stream of one-off singles followed over the next couple of years, always coming in bursts like they were leading up to something, but they never did, and eventually they dried up entirely. Earlier this year she said she partly blamed her former label, Sony's Relentless, for this slow progress, adding: "Not being able to release my music was one of the most heart wrenching feelings I've ever experienced".
Now releasing independently through her own Qwerky Entertainment company, her resurgence began with a somewhat unlikely collaboration with Toddla T remixing the 'Shaun The Sheep' theme tune for the animated character's 'Farmageddon' movie. Since then, she's returned to a more conventional track, with a number of collaborations with other artists and three singles of her own.
The latest of those singles, 'Bad N Boujee', has just arrived, and is the last before the release of her new EP, 'First Class', next month. "Is this the end of our hero?" asks the comic book artwork for the new single. I don't think so. Listen to 'Bad N Boujee' here: