British rapper and songwriter Speech Debelle has earned major acclaim for her intensely reflective lyrics and sophisticated flows, set to lushly orchestrated, often acoustic-based production that draws from jazz, folk, reggae, and classical. Her 2009 debut album, Speech Therapy, was awarded the prestigious Mercury Prize, and she followed it with the more ambitious, expansive Freedom of Speech in 2012. She has remained busy with other pursuits, particularly social activism and cooking, but she's returned to music on occasion, self-releasing her third effort, Tantil Before I Breathe, in 2017, and issuing Sunday Dinner on a Monday, a more atmospheric, electronic effort inspired by her family lineage, in 2023.
