Each week, Music Week profiles a red hot brand new artist. Under our microscope this week is Spanish rapper Bad Gyal...  

Key Track: Jacaranda
Label: La Web De Canada
Twitter: @akabadgyal
Management: Entre Lineas

Who: Genre-mashing Spanish rapper Alba Farelo.

What: Bad Gyal takes from dancehall and reggaetón and has been dubbed ‘The Queen Of Catalan Trap’.

Where: Farelo moved down the coast to Barcelona from seaside town Vilassar de Mar last year.

A Trap Queen, really?

Pai, her, erm, rework of Rihanna’s Work turned Bad Gyal into an internet
smash last year, and she’s rising fast. She rejects pigeonholing though, recently telling Pitchfork: “I’ve listened to things here in Spain that they don’t get in Jamaica”.

So what does she sound like then?

Spitting in Spanish, Catalan and English over big rhythms, Bad Gyal’s songs are heavy, brash and banging. See Jacaranda for evidence.

So they'd be good live, then?

Funny you say that, she plays The Old Blue Last on November 22 as part of The Great Escape’s First Fifty gig series. Get there early.

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