Real name Ava Laurel, Ladbroke Grove-based artist Lava La Rue makes soft, boom-bap hip-hop rooted in spoken word and beguiling, soul-tinged bops that speak to queer self-love, politics and femme solidarity.
Now 21, she has been making music since her teen years in foster care (she entered care aged 14, having been raised by her Jamaican grandma). Lava grew-up aware she wasn’t like her wealthy or well-connected peers in the arts, but equally aware of just how powerful a strong-minded person can be, against all the odds.
Laurel is part of underground collective NiNE8 (their name is a play on the fact that they are nine people, mostly born in 1998), who create everything, from their songs and videos to their clothes, themselves. Members include emerging acts such as Biig Piig, who was in Laurel’s college music class (as was, incidentally, rapper Dave).
Following her biggest summer of touring and releases so far, and with her second mixtape, Stitches, lined up for September, Lava La Rue is creating her own space in which to succeed. As she told Complex last year: “I really believe that the answer to this war on class and things becoming unaffordable for creative people isn’t to move out – it’s to stand our ground and fight and make it a place that artists can thrive.”
