This is a part of
HIP-HOP 50

Most noticed contestant at Nouvelle Ecole 2

After her brief appearance in the second series of Nouvelle Ecole – the ultra-popular hip-hop competition on Netflix - Nayra was embraced by audiences and the media. Her premature elimination became a blessing and characteristic of this quirky young artist’s trajectory.

For convenience, she is often described as “petite rebeue de banlieue”, a label given to many female artists with Maghrebian roots, regardless of the musical genre they perform. She is a writer and composer and calls herself “chanteuse de rap, artiste de rap-R&B” but none of these descriptions do her justice.

Nayra has been through the right school of life: she first began rapping amongst the freestylers in her neighbourhood and learned to play guitar, ukulele and piano. Then she began taking part in competitions and, especially, performing heaps. She was barely of age when she was picked up by Elektra, but she didn’t give in to the label’s restrictive guidelines. That mental work-out and liberating artistic choice now helps her continue on the right path. This will be a night to remember.