As much as I love the nineties for its fashion and slick sounds, the early noughties was an era that defined the later years of my childhood. Amongst my all-girl friendship group (with our own acronym no less), discussions about the latest episode of That’s So Raven and Totally Spies!, music was there. Unknowingly it was the music of black British female artists that had helped shape part of who I am today, but it’s only on looking back that I can see why.
Everyone recalls the first time they knew they were black. Not literally, but that defining moment when what you thought was normal becomes othered and you’re left with the realisation that you’re viewed differently outside the walls of your home. I had always been Nigerian, but the moment when I became aware of my blackness was in primary school.