NoLay, also known as Isabella or Bella Gotti, is a British

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

of Greek-Cypriot and Caribbean background.

Career

NoLay first officially landed on the UK urban scene as a member of a collective called Unorthodox. Unorthodox released "No Help or Handouts" in 2005, which grabbed the attention of major labels leading to NoLay's first solo release "Unorthodox Daughter". The track was included on

Warner Warner can refer to: People * Warner (writer) * Warner (given name) * Warner (surname) Fictional characters * Yakko, Wakko, and Dot Warner, stars of the animated television series ''Animaniacs'' * Aaron Warner, a character in ''Shatter Me s ...

imprint label

679 Recordings 679 Artists (formally known as Sixsevenine and 679 Recordings) was a Warner Music Group-owned record label based in London, England. It was started by Nick Worthington who after leaving XL Recordings in 2001, started the company with Warner M ...

' ''

Run The Road ''Run the Road'' is a series of compilations released on 679 Recordings and Vice. It is intended to showcase a wide variety of grime artists from the genre such as Dizzee Rascal, Wiley and Kano. ''Run the Roads musical implications ''Run the Road'' ...

'' compilation (2005) showcasing UK

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 ...

and featuring

Dizzee Rascal Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 18 September 1984), better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a British MC and rapper. A pioneer of grime music, his work has also incorporated elements of UK garage, bassline, British hip hop, and R&B. Dizze ...

Wiley Wiley may refer to: Locations * Wiley, Colorado, a U.S. town *Wiley, Pleasants County, West Virginia, U.S. * Wiley-Kaserne, a district of the city of Neu-Ulm, Germany People * Wiley (musician), British grime MC, rapper, and producer * Wiley Mill ...

Kano Kano may refer to: Places *Kano State, a state in Northern Nigeria * Kano (city), a city in Nigeria, and the capital of Kano State **Kingdom of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between the 10th and 14th centuries **Sultanate of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between ...

and others. The label also released a vinyl to record shops with just

Plan B Plan B typically refers to a contingency plan, a plan devised for an outcome other than in the expected plan. Plan B may also refer to: * Plan B, a brand name of levonorgestrel, an emergency contraception drug Film and television * Plan B En ...

and Nolay on it to promote the release. Run The Road's success led 679 to release a second volume in 2006 on which Nolay features again with her track "Unorthodox Chick". NoLay has opened for

Mobb Deep Mobb Deep was an American hip hop duo from New York City. The duo consisted of rappers Prodigy and Havoc. They are considered to be among the principal progenitors of hardcore East Coast hip hopEdwards, Paul, 2009, ''How to Rap: The Art & Scien ...

and the

Infamous Mobb Infamous Mobb, also known as IM3, is a hip hop group from Queensbridge, Long Island City, Queens, New York, United States, composed of members Ty Nitty, Twin Gambino aka Big Twin and G.O.D. Part III aka Godfather Part III. They are an integral ...

. She has toured Europe with Australian

electronic rock Electronic rock is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music, featuring instruments typically found within both genres. It originates from the late 1960s, when rock bands began incorporating electronic instrume ...

group

The Bumblebeez The Bumblebeez (previously known as Bumblebeez 81) is an Australian indie band, formed by Christopher Colonna and his sister Pia Colonna (AKA Queen ViLa). The band's music has been described as a, "cut'n'paste collision of noisy hip-hop and rock ...

and featured on their 2006 track "Fuck Disco". In 2009 NoLay guested on

Mongrel A mongrel, mutt or mixed-breed dog is a dog that does not belong to one officially recognized Dog breed, breed and including those that are the result of intentional Dog breeding, breeding. Although the term ''mixed-breed dog'' is sometime ...

's '' Better Than Heavy'' album. She also featured on Tricky's 2014 album

Adrian Thaws Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws (born 27 January 1968), better known by his stage name Tricky, is a British record producer and rapper. Born and raised in Bristol, he began his career as an early member of the band Massive Attack alongside Rob ...

and toured Europe with him. In 2013, she appeared in a drama on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

called

Top Boy ''Top Boy'' is a British television crime drama series, created and written by Ronan Bennett. The series is set in the fictional Summerhouse estate in the London Borough of Hackney and focuses on two drug dealers Dushane ( Ashley Walters) and ...

playing the character Mandy. Mandy was the girlfriend of leading character Dris and the mother of his child. After a dozen EP and mixtape releases over the course of a decade, NoLay released album ''This Woman'' in 2017, previewed by a video for track "Dancing With The Devil", which tackled domestic violence. Nolay also released a video in July 2017 for the track "Marching" also lifted from her March 2017 release "This Woman" In 2021, NOW Entertainment Magazine reported that Nolay released a new song tagged ''Gang Shit'' which makes the third list of her 2021 7-track Hip-hop/Rap album titled ''Kalas''.

Name

Explaining her name NoLay explains: “It comes from the times when I was younger. It’s like you know referring to not procrastinating and wasting time. Just get to it and also take nothing lying down. Where I come from back then and even now people say No lay lay which means no hesitation. So one day a friend of mine from

Peckham Peckham () is a district in southeast London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon p ...

said I should call myself No lay.” In 2014 NoLay changed her name to Bella Gotti but decided to change her name back to stay true to her original fanbase. She explained in interviews that her alias is an alter ego similar to

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

's Marshall Mathers and Slim Shady or

Jay Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...

's Jigga and Jay Hova.

Car accident

On 24 April 2016, NoLay was involved in a car accident abroad which left her in a critical condition. Supporters created the

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 ...

trending

hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash (also known as pound or octothorpe) sign, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter or Instagram as a form of user-generated ...

#PrayForNolay. NoLay has since recovered.

Style

NoLay is known for her gritty rhymes and wordplay that have often gained her comparisons to MC

Ghetts Justin Clarke, better known by his stage name Ghetts (formerly Ghetto), is a British grime MC, rapper and songwriter. His music has been played on national radio stations such as BBC Radio 1, Kiss 100, BBC Asian Network, and BBC Radio 1Xtra. Cur ...

who she has collaborated with but to whom she doesn't believe herself to be similar: "I used to be described as 'the female version of Ghetts'; how do you know Ghetts isn’t the male version of me?"

Discography

;Singles: ;Mixtapes and albums ;EPs ;Guest appearances

References

External links

Bet interview, 2017Vice interview, 2017Fader interview, 2017
{{Authority control Grime music artists People from Croydon Rappers from London English women rappers Black British women rappers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people