Rachel Prager, better known by her stage name Baby Blue, is a British rapper and singer from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England. She is known for her work with singer Estelle and collaborations with John Legend,

Madness Madness or The Madness may refer to: Emotion and mental health * Anger, an intense emotional response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat * Insanity, a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns * ...

Sway Sway may refer to: Places * Sway, Hampshire, a village and civil parish in the New Forest in England ** Sway railway station, serving the village People * Sway (British musician) (born 1983), British hip hop/grime singer * Sway Calloway (born 1 ...

Shystie Chanel Cali (born 25 December 1983), better known by her stage name Shystie, is an English rapper, songwriter and actress. Her mother was born and raised in Barbados and her father was born and raised in Grenada, making her heritage West-Indian. ...

Ms. Dynamite Niomi Arleen McLean-Daley (born 26 April 1981), better known as Ms. Dynamite, is a British singer and rapper. She is the recipient of the Mercury Music Prize, two Brit Awards and three MOBO Awards. Early years She was born Niomi Arleen Mc ...

and Lady Sovereign. Baby Blue has a sound that fuses hip hop with

grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust * Grime (music genre), a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game * "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Wood ...

, R&B and

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

. In 2018, Prager-Riel became "Head of Music" at 7Wallace, Idris Elba's record label.

Biography

Prager started rapping while at school and eventually recorded a track called "I Woulda", which was inspired by her cousin's gang-related death in the U.S.. The track received heavy rotation and was the start of Prager's career as a

recording artist A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

. When she was 19, she sent a demo of her music to UK artist Estelle, who invited her to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to record the song "Hey Girl" featuring John Legend, as well as "Don't Talk", another track for Estelle's début album '' The 18th Day'', which was certified gold in the UK. Baby Blue was also featured rapping in the video for the top 20 Estelle hit "

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

". Later that year, Blue released the

mixtape A mixtape (alternatively mix-tape, mix tape or mixed tape) is a compilation of music, typically from multiple sources, recorded onto a medium. With origins in the 1980s, the term normally describes a homemade compilation of music onto a cassette ...

''Out of the Blue Vol. I'' (with Volume II released two years later) which featured Estelle, members of

So Solid Crew So Solid Crew are a British UK garage and hip hop collective originating from the area on and surrounding the Winstanley and York Road Estates in Battersea, London which achieved wide success in the early 2000s. The group consisted of many m ...

, Shystie, Sway, and Akala. Her first solo

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was for the single "Sometimes", which was released to push ''Vol. II'' of the mixtape. This led ''Mobo Magazine'' to dub her "The Uncrowned Queen of the UK" and MTV to list her as "one of the hottest up 'n' coming stars". Baby Blue featured on new wave ska band Madness's comeback single " Sorry" in 2007, which went to 23 in the UK singles chart and was on the soundtrack for ''

FIFA 08 ''FIFA 08'' (titled ''FIFA Soccer 08'' in North America ) is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. It was released on all popular gaming formats in September 2007 in Eur ...

''. She toured with Estelle for four months, travelling around the U.S. and Europe. She has also worked with

, Kardinal Offishall, and Idris Elba. In 2010, in an interview with thekoalition.com, Baby Blue stated that she was working on an EP to be released in March 2010, and an album to be released later on in the same year. On 17 March that year, Baby Blue released a digital mixtape entitled ''Firefly''. It was revealed that the title of her album would be called ''No Smoke Without Fire''. On 20 July 2012, Baby Blue announced via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that she has been signed by 3 Beat/Universal. On 26 July 2013, Baby Blue announced she had spent time in the recording studio with So Solid Crew singer

Lisa Maffia Lisa Maffia (born 16 June 1979) is a British singer-songwriter, musician, rapper, actress, fashion designer, model and presenter, who originally came to the public's attention as the main female member of So Solid Crew. Whilst in So Solid Crew, ...

, with each artist both contributing to forthcoming albums. In 2018, Prager-Riel became "Head of Music" at 7Wallace, the record label founded by Idris Elba in 2015. In a joint venture with Universal Music Publishing, the company has expanded to include music publishing and has set up studios in Central London and Oxford.

Discography

Mixtapes

* 2005: ''Out of the Blue Vol. I'' * 2007: ''Out of the Blue Vol. II'' * 2010: ''Firefly''

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Guest appearances

* "Don't Talk" and "Hey Girl" (featuring John Legend) on Estelle's album '' The 18th Day'' (2004)

References

External links

Baby Blue official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baby Blue (Rapper) Living people Year of birth missing (living people) English women rappers Grime music artists Rappers from London English women in electronic music 21st-century English women singers 21st-century English singers 21st-century women rappers British hip hop singers Universal Music Group artists