We covered Azealia Banks twice in the past year, highlighting that she would be one to keep an eye out for in the future. Since then she has been highly championed by Radio 1 and I fully expect her to win the BBC Sound of 2012 poll that will begin to count down any day now.

After being lucky enough to see her live when she played her first headlining show in London I can definitely confirm that she is the real deal. Not only is she incredibly sassy with an impeccable flow but thanks to her stage school upbringing she has an amazing singing voice too.

Azealia has been already hard at work in the studio with the legendary Paul Epworth (responsible for Bloc Party‘s Silent Alarm, Plan B‘s Defamation of Strickland Banks, Florence + The Machine‘s Lungs & Ceremonials, and Adele‘s 21 amongst others), so my hopes of a classic debut album are justifiably high. This new cut called Liquorice should tide us over ’til then though.

Azealia Banks – “Liquorice”