Skilfully beating off many hopefuls and propelling herself to the crown of Urban Idol surpassed initial predictions. But by whipping up a frenzy at the Urban Music Seminar (UMS) last year (impressing such notables as Roc-a-Fella’s Damon Dash), she proved why she has been embraced as the UK’s unrivalled ‘Princess of 2Step-Hip Hop’.

At just 17-years-old, Phalon has managed to gain a lot more than a foot in-the-door off her own back, an accomplishment made without copying styles, beefing or any other ‘easy’ method of cheap publicity common among artists these days. 

The North Londoner who also goes by the moniker ‘Lyrical’ – a name awarded to her by ‘people in the know’ around her borough, or ‘Ends’ (in street terms these days) – is determined to show the world exactly what’s on her mind – and that of her generation – no-holds-barred. “Society’s got it wrong,” she says. “I don’t know if they think my generation can’t see that we are being misled with all sorts of commercialisation instead of the real meaning of things. 

“Take Valentines Day for example. We’re never really told or taught about the true meaning of love, yet if you turn on the TV, you’ve got all sorts of adverts that are shown around the period hoping to make you spend money that you don’t have.” Clearly, with a very strong mind of her own, Phalon doesn’t need to mention marketing phrases like ‘girl power’ because she is clearly an embodiment of the concept and others encouraging believing in ones self and aspiring towards personal achievement. 

Winning the attention of people whenever she is on stage led to several premature record deals being placed in front of her, but after watching the fading away of many so-called talented artists (especially urban artistes), she opted to shop around a bit more while gaining more on-stage experience. “Some people say that I should have taken what was given to me at the time, but looking back I have no regrets because representatives of labels keep coming because I’m constantly improving. What I’ve realised is that the offers keep getting bigger, but I have to make sure that the label I eventually sign on to is ready to do what it takes to make me a success.

“If I wasn’t willing to work hard and just wanted a marketing department to push me, then yeah, it’ll be alright. But I’ve been working hard, very hard, to build a name that would soon be a brand, so I’ve got to be careful with what I sign or who I sign with.”

After propelling herself into winning the final of Urban Idol, Phalon aka Lyrical has had an amazing response and she is definitely a face you will be seeing a lot more of in 2005. 

Since then she has been blowing up many shows in London most notably sending the crowd into a frenzy at the Urban Music Seminar (UMS). She is currently working on an album and shooting a video for her debut single ‘Man Dem’ scheduled for a Valentines Day release. The as-yet untitled album is estimated to see a summer 2005 release. 

‘Man Dem’ is a track where she tells men exactly where they stand and has had crowds going wild because of its humorously outrageous punch lines. 

At the tender age of 17 Phalon’s potential is amazing and people are still asking weather she writes her own stuff, the answer to that is “yes”. Armed with petrol and matches, lyrical is ready to set fire to the British music scene and certainly has all the right talent and attributes to do so.

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