For Judgement Days, Ms Dynamite hooked up again with Chink in Miami, where
she also collaborated with Jamaican dancehall legend Stephen 'Lenky'
Marsden and up-and-coming Miami producer Wayne The Brain. Back in Europe
she flew to Sweden to work with Christian Karlsson, aka Bloodshy, hitmaker
for Britney Spears and to Ireland for sessions with Reza Safinia, who has
worked with Britney and Kylie.
Artists she collaborated with included Southern rapper Lil' Wayne (from
the Cash Money crew), fast-rising Jamaican dancehall MC Assassin, Chink
Santana (with his MC hat on) and UK MC Sincere - a hot name to watch. The
result is Ms Dynamite's long-awaited second album, Judgement Days. She
conceived of the title (Judgement Day (singular) is also the title of the
first single to be taken from it) after a late-night conversation with
Chink about "life, the things we see, the things we've been through".
"I'm not a particularly religious person, but the concept of judgement day
has played on my mind in the past. You're supposed to be judged on your
day of dying. But I feel that where we go wrong as human beings is that we
feel we're only going to be judged on this one day. But I think every
single day of our lives, every situation, every conversation, every
action, every relationship is part of our judgement day. It's not just
about the final day; it's about all the days that build up to that day and
the fact that God whoever he or she may be is watching over us at all
times." A little bit older, wiser, a celebrity and a mother, too, a lot
has changed for 24-year-old Niomi Daley. "I definitely feel less angry and
more at ease and at peace with myself. I had a load of issues I hadn't
really dealt with before my first album - and then the music came along
and I didn't really need to face them. I definitely needed to slow down,
and I feel like I'm at the other end of a tunnel now."
Though Niomi Daley may have mellowed, fans will soon hear that her alter-
ego Ms Dynamite still isn't pulling any punches. Topics on Judgement Days
include gun crime, the decline of UK clubland and absent fathers. Love is
a theme, to both adult relationships and teenage crushes. "When you're an
adult, love enters this zone where things get complicated. Whereas when
you're a child and you think you're in love, it's just a smile. It doesn't
go any further or deeper than that. On one track, Back Then, it's just
saying, just take me back to then when it was all so simple.
|
