Nicola Varley (born 9 April 1987), known as Envy, is an English
rapper
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
/
MC.
Envy carved out her own niche in the predominantly male British
grime
Grime may refer to:
* Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust
* Grime (music genre), a genre of music
* ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity
* ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game
* "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...
scene with several show-stealing appearances on 'The City Is Ours Music Mixtapes' from Manchester. This led to several collaborations with artists from all over the UK She released her debut solo single, "Tongue Twister", through StopStart Records.
Having graduated from
Loughborough University with a degree in Media, Envy now concentrates on her music career full-time:
Her lyrics, if you can hear them (you might need a vari-speed facility), are well smart, with the wry, pithy intelligence of the media-savvy: "I take it tit for tat/I'll take your tacit consent/To turn the Taliban to take over your town… You're lookin' to be loved but can't find a flippin' solution/I'm lost on location, laceratin' as I'm lacin'/Lookin' lovely/Better pray your label pay for elocution," she rapid-fires over the bubblicious grime rhythms, with their shades of Missy's Work It, of previous single Tongue Twister. We're not sure what she means or who the subject is of her ire here, but as ever she sounds fierce yet witty, her staccato delivery popping in time to the buzzing, fizzing synth beat. In fact, so rhythmic is her phrasing that it would sound good acappella, but it works both ways: remove her rhymes and you've got pristine future-perfect electro-pop.
Discography
Albums
Singles
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
ENVY on MYSPACE!ilikemusic.com articleOfficial website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Envy (Mc Rapper)
1987 births
Living people
Grime music artists
Alumni of Loughborough University
English women rappers
Musicians from Greater Manchester
People from Sale, Greater Manchester