CRISTALE IS TAKING OVER THE GAME

We know you lot already know about Cristale, how could you not? But we think it's important we talk about Cristale, how she got here, and why she deserves to stay as we look at her older work, how she blew up, her creative abilities, and how she could be one of the coldest female rappers in the scene for a very long time.

According to YouTube, Cristale has been making music for just three years but we know that when someone has this level of musical ability, she's been doing this all her life. Cristale's official website for music releases and tour announcements, has listed the star as having a "natural talent" as a wordsmith, stating that it's "a trait that aligns her with legendary artists like Lauryn Hill". It all kick started when she worked with Digital Holdings Studios, helping other rappers like SL, and Harlem Spartans

Having been born in Brixton, London, she was raised by an "incredible family unit" who all supported her hard work and dedication no matter which field she was in at the time. At such a young age through primary school, she would have rap battles with some of the other children and win. Writing lyrics with family members from early had also helped her language and use of wordplay throughout her music, making you actually deep and understand what the star is saying behind her bars. Through her household growing up, she was put on to a lot of dancehall artists like Buju Banton due to her Caribbean heritage, linking to some of the tracks she had made, such as 'Bing Bong', a dancehall-inspired track that we will be getting into a lot more, later. She later told Rolling Stone UK that a lot of the music she loves doesn't correlate with her age as she was shown most by her mother. Cristale also grew up around her uncle, a rapper himself, who helped encourage her to pursue her musical career, she told Rolling Stone UK that this led her to have a relationship with words as it "became an obsession".

Like most young adults in and around the UK, Cristale took a liking to a lot of grime rappers like Stormzy and Chip, alongside starting her rap career at the age of nineteen. Having finally gained the attention she deserves in the height of lockdown 2021 with a classic 'Lemon Pepper Freesystyle', following the trend after a Drake release on his album 'Scary Hours 2'. The video currently sits on thirty-seven thousand views and was a very nice insight into how she views herself in the music scene in the bar "Heavy is the head that wears the crown, that's why I weigh more", she knows who she is, why she's here and lets everyone know she's here to stay for quite some time. Since being released in 2021, the video on her own channel currently sits on thirty-eight thousand views and comments full of love and excitement for what else we can see from Cristale. A lovely comment caught our eye in the comments, reading "You're straight off the chain, how the hell have you not blown up yet? Straight up giving me goosebumps listening to your flow". This was only the start of watching Cristale's greatness get recognised.

However, before getting recognised for this track, she had released a project titled "What It's Like To Be Young", we've had a listen-through of the whole project on more than one occasion, noting down some of our favorite bars. One bar alone in track 'Braids' really stuck out for us as she told us that she had people around her that she needed and didn't have room for many others so she asked them what they were going to do for her and how they were going to help her get to where she wants to be in the bar "I know what I bring to the table, it's full now, what can you do for me though". Maybe meaning that if you bring the right things to the table, she may let you in. The hunger in her voice through this track is so evident, she really wants this place in the scene and you know that she's going to get there just from her delivery and tone, something rare to hear in music these days.

Another very important track in this project would definitely have to be 'Hold n $queeze' a very important track to hear about the reality of rap music and growing up on the cold streets of London as she talks from experiences she's seen growing up. Evident in the bar "Young man got hit with a shape-up, no barber, lined up by a razor, bein' that ting from school kids, blud, poor kid got a ying in his blazer, on the G wing now, he regretting it later", showing a clear example of wrong place, wrong time, a sad story of someone getting hurt because another young person carried a weapon, and is now on the prison wing regretting his previous decisions.

if everything we've previously spoken about hasn't reminded you of where you know Cristale from, you will after this part of the article, in April of 2023, Cristale and her good friend Teezandos came together in the booth and gave us an episode of Plugged In with Fumez The Engineer. The video of which is currently sat on five and a half million views and went viral on TikTok with people and fans spreading the love and the contagious knowledge of the lyrics. The way the pair fly off of each other throughout the video was incredible and we can safely say that we do not think another female pair can do what they did in this video.

Although Cristale had been around and people were aware of her work and was she was capable of, this video most definitely helped her reach the audience she wanted to have before this video. Even though this article's purpose is to focus on Cristale, it is impossible to miss out on the craft and talent of Teezandos, the pair go back and forth throughout the verses, and some of the amazing bars from this that stand out most consist of bars like "I'm bad on my J's but I'm badder with slime", stating that she can do whatever it is she needs to do on her own but do not cross her when she's with 'slime' referring to a brother or a very good friend, as when with a friend she simply will do whatever she has to do plus someone else with the same mindset. Also with "And you know I can kill a man lyrically?", she knows where she stands in the scene and it shows her confidence is very high, which is exactly where it should be.

There's also a tiny bit of rap knowledge and referencing in a verse in which Cristale states "She said "Your boy didn't dig that'", leading Teezandoes into her fifth verse as she says "She got creased like an Air Force 1", this links to the rapper DigDat 'dig that', as the rapper has got a track called Air Force, a track that helped his career a lot.

After the freestyle dropped we next saw Cristale featuring on her good friend PS Hitsqaud's track 'Rah' and we cannot lie to you guys, this is easily one of her best verses to date, the flow on the verse, the delivery, it's all unmatched with some of her other tracks and this is just a verse. After this masterpiece, it was only right that she jumped on a Daily Duppy with two beats, and before we jump into that one, you'll have to bear with us as it would be impossible to break down every bar as we'd be here for far too long but we're going to pick out our favourites from each part of the track.

First off, the beat selection on this track is perfect, and of course, it is, M1OnTheBeat made it. We quickly understand why Cristale deserves this Daily Duppy with bars like "Her sister came to warn me, But me and my g's are Bert & Ernies", showing her and her friends are closer than a pair of blood sisters, along with another cartoon reference, becoming a theme in her tracks. Another would have to be the bar "Why for the fishiness, I know a guy that's a walking catfish, Outside he's cool on the inside he's hideous", linking to the 'fishiness' in the line before links to the fish species catfish, but also refers to the term being a catfish meaning that someone is pretending to be someone that you are not, for example, being a different person online in comparison to someone in real life.

The second beat is also beautiful from start to finish, especially when she touches on being the top dog, as she lists everything she knows she can do in the bar "I rap, sing, kick ball, and I'm calm to chat too, but if you wanna act up that's cool, coz I can act too", letting everyone know once again that she can do it all so hate on one thing because it does not matter, she'll just do something else. Following that she goes to finally back up that she's that girl when she says "If I post a bikini picture on the gram, I'll cause a riot", enough said. And finally, yet another cartoon reference to see us out of the track, "All my likkle siblings are the Stewies to my Brian".

The deeper meaning behind this track was beautiful to see from such a young female rapper. The video was a part of their female series in aid to support the Women's FIFA World Cup as the England female team came closer to the final, linking Cristale to her football upbringing and football knowledge throughout her teenage years. She was scouted at just fourteen to play and train with the other under eighteens and sixteens at Crystal Palace FC and often references football players and moments in her tracks.

This brings us to more recent times for the rapper in her career, as we then saw her promoting on Instagram that she was going to be a part of the next upcoming series of 'Top Boy', captioning her announcement with "Cats out the bag!! It's been an honor working on the final chapter, linking back to her daily duppy when she addressed the fact she can "act too". However, Cristale didn't just act in the latest series, she also happened to bag an amazing space and opportunity, being able to release her own track 'Rodents', being placed on the official series soundtrack. Of course, it was accompanied by a classic clean-cut Cristale music video, upon announcement, the star was hit with a load of lovely excited, proud comments, some star names are Strandz, Big Zuu, Poet, and NSG. The video currently sits on just under eight hundred thousand views with a lot of positive energy in the comments, some that stick out most for us would have to be "that one song made the whole season for me", and "keep killing it! straigh fire! so happy this is out. had me bobbin when I watch Top Boy"

We are loving everything Cristale touches right now, and cannot wait to see what she comes to be a part of next!