More than two years after she won the Mercury prize, Speech Debelle has revealed details of her "high-energy" second album, Freedom of Speech. Produced by Kwes, the LP features a lead single cowritten by the figure behind Adele's Chasing Pavements.
It's a big change for Debelle, who charmed Mercury judges with her debut album. Freedom of Speech features synths and programmed drums and rather than free-wheeling autobiography, this 12-song set is organised around two main themes: revolution and love.
I'm With It, the album's first single, is in the latter camp: it's a "future-Motown" love song, according to the rapper's label. While the B-sides include remixes by DJs such as Leo Zeo, Lapalux and Hyperdub's Cooly G, the song itself was written with Eg White, who has worked with Adele, Duffy, James Blunt and Florence + the Machine.
Debelle's play for a pop audience follows on the relatively disappointing sales of Speech Therapy, which suffered the worst-ever chart showing by a Mercury winner. The rapper initially blamed her label, Big Dada: "The machine wasn't there," she said in November 2009. "I wasn't disappointed it didn't sell well, I was disappointed in the people I was working with." At the time, she planned to record her second album with the same producer as on her debut, Wayne Lo-Tek. "I want it to be a mix of Ray Charles … [with] the atmosphere of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and the drums of J Dilla," she said. Debelle and Big Dada later reconciled.
Freedom of Speech is released on 13 February. The single follows a week later.
