ShyGirl

ShyGirl is the stage name of Blane Muise, a London-born rapper, DJ, singer and songwriter. She is born in 1993 and is associated with hip hop, grime, electronic music, UK bass, experimental music and deconstructed club. Her work also draws on hip house and industrial hip-hop, and she is linked with the hyperpop scene.

Background

ShyGirl grows up in South London and around Blackheath and is of Grenadian descent. She describes herself as a homebody and says she spends much of her younger years reading and imagining fantasy. At school she is head girl, and she later studies practical photography at the University of Bristol, travelling back to London at weekends for parties.

Music career

She releases her first single, Want More, in 2016, with production from Sega Bodega. It is the first track issued on Nuxxe, the label and collective she co-founds and co-heads with Sega Bodega and Coucou Chloe. She then continues to work closely with Sega Bodega on the singles Msry and Nvr in 2017, after appearing on his track CC earlier that year.

In 2018, she leaves her modelling-agency job to focus on music. Her debut EP, Cruel Practice, appears in May 2018 on Nuxxe and receives positive notice from Pitchfork, Crack Magazine and Tiny Mix Tapes. She follows it with the EP Alias, released on Because Music in November 2020, which also gains attention from Pitchfork, Vogue and NME and is listed by MusicNGear among the best EPs of 2020.

Collaborations and releases

ShyGirl works with a number of experimental pop producers, including Arca and Sophie. She features on Arca’s Watch from the album Kick I, and earlier collaborates with Arca on Unconditional, a single whose proceeds go to Black Lives Matter and Inquest UK. In 2021 she releases the performance film Blu, which includes songs from Alias and the new track BDE with Slowthai; she issues BDE as a single the following day and later releases the BDE 3XL remix EP.

She also appears on a remix of Lady Gaga and Blackpink’s Sour Candy on Gaga’s Dawn of Chromatica remix album, alongside Mura Masa. Rihanna uses various Nuxxe tracks in Fenty Beauty commercials and fashion shows, which brings ShyGirl wider attention.

Album

Her debut studio album, Nymph, is released in 2022.