ooc: just knocked up a quick little re-intro

Who's that girl? London's hip hop sensation returns with a new look

British rapper Foxxxy returns with a new look, new style and an all new appeal.


Foxxxy has blossomed from the ugly duckling she once was into a Potential star of the future.

There once was an ugly duckling...Hans Christian Andersen may have wrote the most famous rags to riches story known to man in the shape of his eponymous farmyard hero, but it seems our feathered friend isn't the only one who can blossom into a flawless swan. Just who is that girl? With the blonde looks, the perfectly manicured nails and the fashion-conscious style, she could be any number of pop sensations - but she's not. This is a familiar face. This is UK hip hop sensation Foxxxy, the 19-year old Londoner who burst onto the scene with her comedic flows and quirky rhymes in 2010, scoring four number one singles in the space of just 18 months.

When she first hit the airwaves, Foxxxy was an arrogant and violently defensive 16-year old. Her songs rocketed her to fame far beyond her years...and way beyond her looks. In a world dominated by the bright and beautiful, Foxxxy was an awkward and curious looking individual. With all the curves of the average ironing board and a mess of orange hair spiked dangerously on her head. Sans makeup and seemingly without care, the oddly dressed teenager was hindered by her limited star power almost as much as she was propelled by her lightning rhymes. In an industry where sex sells and the popular kids make it all the way to the top, the awkward geek who would look as out of place on a magazine cover as she would among an entire pond of ducklings, never stood a chance.

At the very height of her rather steep arc, Foxxxy was one of the hottest acts around. She supported Electrodeath on a multi continent tour, worked with dance superstart Cinzia Ricci, topped the charts with super producers Buzz & Hype and was out with Isabel Merjos on a worldwide sell out tour. That's where it all came off the rails though. Her rise to fame was only beaten for pace by the way she dropped, like a brick, erased from our collective consciousness even quicker than she came to our attention. If anything, Foxxxy's rise and fall is a condensed synopsis of the cruelty of the music industry, showing just how fickle and difficult it can be to overcome.


Foxxxy circa 2011: The rapper was often seen to be depressed and alone despite floating around the top of the charts.

Dropped from her label late in 2012, Foxxxy looked set to become nothing more than another footnote in the long history of hip hop. Her hit singles such as Stand Up and Missing You were confined to the deepest darkest corners of Wikipedia, and as she bowed out of the 2012 Isabel Merjos world tour early she looked destined to be nothing more than someone we fondly remember on Buzzfeed in 20 years time as yet another flash in the pan. However, Foxxxy, or Taylor Fox as she is known to her friends and family, decided to live up to her name, and decided to come back with an all new look to silence the haters, cut out the criticism and give herself every chance of succeeding in an industry that refused to previously give her the time of day.

"Getting a makeover was as much about me as it was other people, innit, though?" the rapper told UKHipOp in an exclusive interview. "Ya know what is though, innit fam? I be dressin' all quirky and ting like I was down that charity shop muggin' dat shit off, and it was like a front, know?" She shifts uncomfortably in her seat. Foxxxy looks massively different to how she did a few years ago. Now 19 and clearly having blossomed later than most her age, she has the curves she once lacked, a smile that was almost never present at the height of her fame, and a confidence that is almost trying to fight through the nerves and self consciousness she has battled for so long.

|"Girl was never happy, you get me? Shit, man I was ill."

"Girl was never happy, you get me? I'm like wake up and look in da 'flec and I'mma say 'Foxxxy girl you got cover dis shit up, innit bruv?' So I'mma wear like ting grandma be gettin' strife for no? Girl was a mess, bruv you feel me? I like force myself to stand on stage and tink everyone be judgin' me, know? Man that is gonna play on your brain, fam. Shit, man I was ill. Stress knocked me inside out, know? I just had to go away and I like walked out on a tour. Shame? I in't never known a ting like dat. People be burnin' up my digits and I'mma like 'ignore....ignore....reject,' innit? Didn't like step out the house for months, bruv."

It was while Foxxxy was taking her enforced break from music that the teenager would realise a change was needed.. With her dreams laying in tatters, and the chance of building a real career out of something she had wanted since she was a little kid ready to float away in the wind, Foxxxy would eventually pull herself back on her feet. "I never been good at nuffin, though. School man, girl spent longer beffin' with the principal than like listening to 2 and 2 and shit like dis, you feel? Come outta der wiv nuffin, innit? When I was like out of the game and shit I'm laying there sayin' Foxxxy, remember the days workin' in the BK bruv...don't wanna go back there, is it? So I like knew I had to fight for this. Man I might not 'ave the mad serious skills of like some of the top rappers, but fam hip hop is the only fing Foxxxy ever done when people be like praisin' and ting. People be layin' praise on me just for me talkin' innit? It was about fightin' for dat."

She openly admits to having lost sight for much of the last year in what she should have believed in. Recording sessions and writing jams with some of the top rappers around made way for vodka binges and secretive nights spent locked in a dingy Essex bedroom huffing on a crack pipe. If you thought Foxxxy looked bad before, this was her at her very lowest. "I would see the reflec' back in dem days, and I was terrifying. The skin was like grey and ting, basically fallin' off my bones and lookin' awful. By that time I was startin' to mature physically, like but the drugs were the low point of my life, and I couldn't even see it. I took crack to numb the pain of bein' the fuck ugliest bitch on earth....and it didn't even help." She sighs as she traces her finger around the rim of her glass. It's almost difficult to believe that the healthy blonde girl in front of us could ever have been crouched in a hovel on the verge of death thanks to a cocktail of illegal drugs and alcohol.

What's important though is how she fought back. Foxxxy would spend around two months in a rehab centre, during which time she managed to completely kick the crack and become a more confident and well rounded individual. "Like.....soon as the crack dried up, fam, Foxxxy be startin' to look good yo. Heisenberg be holdin' a bitch down, innit?" she chuckles. "But nah, bruv, genuine for real, like innit? the fact I could look at myself and see how much better Foxxxy be lookin' I was like "get dis shit together girl....too much to live for innit?""

Speaking of her new look, Foxxxy looks a little apprehensive. She knows what people will think of the way she has managed to scrub up, changing from a grubby teenager in oversized fashion disasters into a stunningly attractive blonde with men falling at her feet. "People gonna be see like dis bimbo who tarted herself up for the fame, innit?" she asks, looking down into her drink. "Truth is, fam, dis shit is all about me. Maybe dis will help wiv my image in the industry...maybe people will take me seriously," she lauds with something of a hint of irony in her voice. "But mostly dis was about me. I had to feel good to be able to get up in the morning innit? If I had to get up and look at dat girl again in the mirror...I don't know...sometimes I felt like I couldn't go on, you get me?"


Foxxxy October 2013: The change in Foxxxy's appearance is as incredible as it is unbelievable.

Foxxxy isn't naive though. The rapper knows that her new look and the radical change is likely to bring about a backlash. "I'mma get used to hearin' shit, yo. Like I get tweets sayin' how Foxxxy is a bad influence for not embracin' my own body and not acceptin' myself, know? But it was deep....deep shit, yo. I in't lie, fam. I spent a lot of the money I earned on a nose job and shaping my chin. Dat is all, man. I bet I can guess what people be tink, but these tits are real, innit? They just arrived late, came from nowhere." She sighs and takes a long telling pause. It's clear that Foxxxy was never that mega confident persona that she projected into the public consciousness way back in 2010. "All a girl can do is be herself, innit? If myself cost money then I know I'mma get hate and ting, but I have to man up and take it where it hurts for bit. Girl just could not go on like when I was 16 innit? I hope people give man a chance, know?"

Despite her frailties, however, it's clear that Foxxxy has something of an underlying strength, even if it's something she herself has yet to discover. The girl sitting opposite us in this hotel bar lets out a sigh every time we mention the past, lets her eyes dip to the floor whenever she mentions her own career, and allows herself a long pause as she remembers where she has been in the past. But the answers she gives still resonate with truth and something of the character we saw in the past. She talks of bringing herself back and fighting for something she has believed she was destined to do for so long. Her eyes light up when she talks about moving forward with her career, and she even allows herself a wry smile when she discusses the way she wants to relaunch herself into the industry that treated her with such contempt during round one.

|"Maybe a knock back is useful. Maybe we need a reality check to show us how we really feel."

"Maybe a knock back is useful, you get me? Maybe we need dat reality check to show us what we really feel, fam. Girl never realised how despressed she was until the first time I got shit from a crowd, innit? I knew I was like depressed at home and ting, but I also thought dat gettin' up on stage was my escape. It wasn't. It was just another mask to hide the worries I had about myself and my career, know? Some guy be shoutin' one night about how Foxxxy be da ugliest shit he ever seen and it just.....bang that shit thumped Foxxxy in the chest like a fuckin' arrow, know? That was the night I think I managed to start changing. I left the tour not long after and I went back to my house in Essex and I cried for like a week. Then I was like 'Yo Foxxx, man. It's time to get dis shit in line, girl. You don't like what you see? Change it, bruv. Change it." She smiles a little at this moment. Foxxxy's growth may be different to what we see with other people. There's no fairytale story of someone coming to realise they're beautiful inside, or an aesop's fable style lesson to be learned about accepting yourself. No, Foxxxy realised that in order to be happy she had to be what she wanted to be. And if we're honest, is there anything wrong with that?

It's not just looks that Foxxxy has managed to transform in the last few months either. Since her emergence from the cocoon that was south Essex, the hip hop starlet has returned to the scene that saw her emerge onto the mainstream in the first place. Physically unrecognisable and visibly more confident than she has been in the past, the 19 year old has launched herself into the underground London garage and grime scenes, debuting new music under the secret moniker "SmokeKillz". The new confident Foxxxy has also managed to somewhat innovate since her return as well. We all remember those chirpy yet violent grime tracks that won our hearts first time around right? So does Foxxxy, but she has banished what she sees as an all-too familiar style to bring about a complete turn around, hitting crowds in London with a sound that is brand new, that typifies the newfound belief that she has in herself and her talents, as well as her looks.


Ready to roll: A new sultry and confident Foxxxy looks ready to stride back into an industry that tossed her so callously aside.

"Hip step," she tells us bluntly as we rush to note down what she has just said. "Grime was my ting innit? My flows were laced with dance tunes and sick mixes. At dat time I loved the shit I was pumpin' out, yo, but when I eventually got the stomach to listen back to it again I was like naaaaaahhhh fam, Foxxxy girl yoube trippin' if you tink dis shit bout to propel yo ass. Time to innovate. I was grasping coat tails, now I'm whippin mine away from hands trying to get a free ride. We mixing dem heavy ass shit dub beats, dat thumping bass wub wiv dis new flow style, dis new angry heavy ass flow dat be like spitting truth right in your eye, you get me? My rhymes might still not be the deepest, not the darkest, not the cleverest out there, but I in't about competin' bruv. I'mma plough my own furrow, I'mma battle myself and fight Foxxxy for the right to reach the top. I 'ave to beat what I did before, know. Fam I have to exceed dat, I have to live up to that and I 'ave to do it all wiv dis new shit that's goin' on all around me."

The new samples provided by her latest producer, a man whose name we seem to be unable to extract from Foxxxy, give a sense of what she's going for with this change of direction. The sort of chirpy dance beats that were sat hand in hand with the venomous, political yet often uplifting lyrics are gone. Long gone. In their place sits a heavy hitting bass track that slows down everything Foxxxy does. Her previous songs saw her spitting rhymes at a ridiculous pace that lent itself well to a UK market but often felt lost in the more refined American hip hop scene. The dub beats allow her to drop the anger back. It feels a lot more controlled, more subtle and more mature. Much like her new look and her rejuvenated image, it's clear to see that Foxxxy has come a long way since she grew up. This just feels much more rounded and more marketable - much the same as could be said for the rapper in general in her new found state of being.

"Yeah, I still believe in dreams and ting, you get me? It's a sad day if you can't believe in yourself anymore fam, innit?" She smiles and then furrows her brow momentarily. "Yeah. I should know...I've been there." The most telling thing about the statement isn't even what she said. It's how she said it. Her comical east London accent has never slipped in almost three years, and it had been tremendously out of place in the last few hours we were sat here in the posh Hilton in London. And then it went. As she contemplated her past and the troubles that had plagued her since she lost her place at the top table, Foxxxy subsided for just a moment and we saw the truth behind her. We saw Taylor Fox. This is rare, and perhaps shows just how far she has come in the past few years. Almost literally everything about Foxxxy has changed in the past few months, but the one constant is still there - she's still the same person deep down.

She smiles again when we lay the final question of the day on Foxxxxy. It's a simple question, with an even simpler answer, but it says everything about this girl. Her radiant smile portrays a beauty and confidence never before seen in Foxxxy, and her eyes tell a thousand tales. This is a girl that has hit rock bottom, and now she's ready to climb to the top once more. Foxxxy was once a name that gave a nod towards the ginger hair that made her famous. Now it's a metaphor for the way vixen-esque beauty that seems to have come from absolutely nowhere. Will it work? Only time will tell, but one thing is for certain: "I'm ready, bruv." Simple. On point. True.

Foxxxy plays her comeback show at London Koko on Thursday October 24th. Tickets cost £6 and can be found at all the normal outlets. Hear the rapper debut her new style and her new raps as she seeks to banish the Foxxxy of days gone by.