"There is no one more vicious and delicious than Verbalicious."
Half street, half sweet, the 18 year old from Yorkshire is a bubbling hybrid of world cultures, education, and a rollercoaster upbringing. With her debut single "Don't Play Nice" she is here to prove that although some may think youth is wasted on the young, talent certainly isn‘t.
Born with a mixed Latin/Irish and Jamaican heritage, her childhood was spent travelling between family homes in the US, and her education and acting career in the UK. After appearing on various TV dramas, by the age of 14 she had successfully landed a leading role on the BBC sitcom "All About Me". Other roles have followed including Casualty, Doctors, Blue Murder and Coronation Street, as well as scoring a permanent role as Amy Franks on The Archers.
Greatly influenced at home by her musically gifted older brother, she moved her talents onto music. Verbz has a particularly deep connection with her brother Mowgli and after experimenting in their home studio came up with a demo that was impressive enough to start sending sparks through the industry. Meanwhile the little free time she had was spent sneaking into clubs to enter mc battles and she was speedily gaining a reputation on the local underground scene.
After only 6 months of honing her skills, the then 16-year-old wordsmith was championed by Bobby Friction and Nihal after entering their 8 Mile style mc battle for Radio 1's OneMusic. Going head to head against 15 other top male mc's she stole the show with a witty freestyle acapella and was consequently whisked off to Radio 1 headquarters in London to guest rap on 5 different shows. Two months later she signed her first record deal.
The self penned debut "Don't Play Nice" is a hiphop powerball funked up with infectious vocals that has captured huge attention from the pop and urban arenas. Shortly before her summer tour (supporting acts such as Kelis, Jamelia and Blue) it caught the attention of Radio 1 DJ Colin Murray and soon made CD burner of the week on the Colin & Edith show and received an overwhelming response from listeners.
Another Verbalicious track (‘Next Big Me’) is currently featured on the hit Disney movie ‘Sleepover’ and, backed by the management skills of industry veteran Tony Gordon (Culture Club) and the impressive label collaboration of AATW (the label behind some of the biggest singles of 2004 including Frankee, Ice Cube and LMC vs U2) and Adventures in Music (the brainchild of former Virgin CEO Paul Conroy, the man behind the Spice Girls, and Katie Conroy, previously international executive at EMI and a key member of the team who broke Kylie and Robbie Williams to name but two) there is no doubt that the frighteningly prolific Verbalicious will be a force to be reckoned with in 2005.
David Jensen Photography:
https://www.davidjensen.co.uk/
