British Rapper, Lady Sanity’s Take On Being A Black Female Artist In The U.K.
Graphic by James Gocke
9:01 a.m.
“Only one minute late, I said to myself.”
9:02 a.m.
“Still, only two minutes late.”
9:03 a.m.
“Oh my gosh, what if she forgot.”
9:04 a.m.
*Sanity Robbins has entered the Zoom call.*
After a quick exchange of greetings, she said, “Literally, time has flown. I looked at the time and was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s 2 p.m. already!’”
9 a.m. on the East Coast equates to 2 p.m. in Birmingham, U.K. British rapper, Lady Sanity, basks in the midday sun coming through the windows of her sister’s home as I sip a cup of coffee over Zoom.
As the world quickly shut down for COVID-19, writing and recording are all that Sherelle Robbins can do. Robbins is the 26-year-old woman behind the stage name ‘Lady Sanity’, an alias she created when she started becoming more serious about music.
“I picked it up because I was, like, the type of music that I want to make, I always want it to be, like, conscious. I always want it to, you know, have a deeper meaning to it,” Robbins said. “So I was like, ‘Sanity sounds perfect for what I want to, like, embody for music as well.’”
Robbins started becoming interested in music when she was around the age of ten after watching her sister’s ex produce music. She learned to play the guitar one summer, and, when she realized that singing wasn’t her thing, she tried rapping.
Her love of music blossomed gradually. She went from learning how to play guitar to making music full-time with no intention of returning to a “normal” day job.
“I’ve been doing music full time now for two years and before that, I was just in university. I was studying, um, again music, but I was learning the technology side behind it,” Robbins explained.
“I could never imagine myself doing a nine-to-five, sitting at a desk. I just know I need to do something creative.”
Her latest release, “Lying in Truth,” is a testament to her hopes of creating music that has “deeper meaning.” The album consists of seven songs and was released on April 17, 2020.
“It mainly was me kind of documenting my journey as a young, black British person,” Robbins said when asked about the inspiration behind the album. “I just really wanted to have something there for other generations and myself to look back on and really discuss, like, what it was like to be a young, black Britain in this time.”
Recently, Sanity performed at Generation W’s online music festival, Generation Worldwide. The festival took place over six days starting on September 9, 2020; the event featured pre-recorded performances of over 50 artists dedicated to “coming together to support women in music and to celebrate people all over the world.”
Generation W itself, in collaboration with Urban Kingdom, a music and video website dedicated to sharing exclusive content about the UK’s unknown artists, is “a collection of original and unseen written interviews with 100 iconic and inspiring British women who lived through 100 years on from the vote passing.”
The Generation Worldwide festival was an extension of Generation W’s goal to celebrate the “iconic” work of female artists, not just from the UK, but across the globe.
Sherelle Robbins and her mother | Photo Courtesy of Robbins
“Who do you think is the most inspiring woman in your life?” I asked Robbins.
“I’d probably have to say, my mom. Is that corny?” she asked.
I assured her it wasn’t.
Lady Sanity’s new album, “Lying in Truth,” is available on Spotify, Apple Music and most other streaming services.