With a name like Shygirl, you might expect the 29-year-old London-based rapper and DJ to make music that feels bashful and coy. But her 2020 EP, Alias, was anything but. “She came to fuck,†she proclaims of a potential lover in her classic hyperpop hit “Slime,†cavalierly listing off places the pair might be “looking to get downâ€: “In the back, in the front / On the highway in your truck / I don’t give a fuck.†What distinguishes Shygirl’s discography, both with Alias and other tracks such as “papi bones,†a techno-infused Afrobeats collaboration with fellow Londoner FKA Twigs, is an addictive sort of hedonism. Fast and furious instrumentals and effortlessly seductive storytelling about dance and lust have made Shygirl a master of the club hit.
Because of this, the artist’s debut album comes as a bit of a surprise: In Nymph, Shygirl largely ditches her mysterious, sexy persona in favor of melodic hooks, softer instrumentals, and sweeter story lines. While certain tracks maintain the artist’s signature hyperpop instrumentals and provocative lyricism, other songs, such as “Wildfire,†find Shygirl finally living up to her name: “Dream of your touch / I’m so lost in your world,†she reminisces sweetly.
Vulture sat down with Shygirl to chat about the process of making her debut record, the benefits and limitations of an artistic persona, and oscillating between sexy and sweet on Nymph.
Your lyrics on Nymph feel more tender than your previous music. Can you talk about your songwriting process for the album?
I haven’t spoken about this in hundreds of interviews, but there’s a common person that I’m referencing from Cruel Practice to Alias and in this project. There’s obviously inspiration in between, and that all feeds in, but there is a continued love that I tend to go back to and revisit as a source of inspiration, and that has affected the tonality and direction of the music. My music isn’t so much about that other person; it’s more about how I’m dealing with these stages in my life and how I’m responding. With each project, you can hear sonically how different my perspective is and how each stage has its own uniqueness to it.
Knowing that definitely puts songs like “Firefly†— where you sing “It’s been so nice not to pretend that we could be together once again†— in a different perspective.Â
Yeah, “Firefly†most pointedly was a reflection on how happy I am that my perspective on that relationship and time in my life feels different now than it once did. It gave me hope for the future that, even if I continue to rehash the same thing, it does feel different for me each time, and I am growing and I’m happy with the person that I am now.
A lot of songs on Nymph were more sung than rapped. Was that a difficult transition?
Rapping for me is easy because there are no rules. But with singing, you’re either a good singer or you’re not, and people can hear that pretty quickly. I was naturally in a space where I was feeling like testing out more melodic hooks and things like that, so I wanted to push myself to try, and I’m really happy with how it came out.
Does Nymph feel like an entirely new direction for you as an artist?
No. For me, all my projects are definitely linked: I wouldn’t have gotten to Nymph without working on Alias. Whenever I make music, I have this urge to get out certain sounds or communicate in a certain way. Each song feels like a chapter in that communication.
How did it feel to show a softer and more vulnerable side of yourself on this album?Â
In sharing the music from Alias, I realized there was this perception of me as this confident, assertive woman — which is true. But I’m also a very emotional person, and I feel like the persona I had in my previous music sidestepped a lot of the journey I took to get to that confident place, which was one of continued vulnerability and sensitivity. I knew there was more of my story to tell, so I wanted to use Nymph to take that persona of me that existed and build on it or add another layer to it.
Do you feel like you were ever pigeonholed as an artist who spoke so often and freely about sex?
I feel like, on some level, what I’m doing is like a social experiment. I know I play into certain stereotypes that exist, or I subvert them. In my past music, I was playing with the role that had already been given to me: this sexy, sensual, outspoken woman. I’ve always kind of existed in that space even beyond music. I wanted to lean into it since that was how people perceived me anyway and take ownership of it. And I found a comfortable place within that, which is what you saw in earlier renditions of the music and persona of Shygirl.
It’s been harder to feel comfortable being vulnerable, but it’s also been more thrilling. With this album, I wanted to really push how honest I was being with myself and interrogate what I needed to say to myself and what I needed to hear.
I loved “Coochie (a bedtime story)†because it felt so unexpectedly playful. Do you feel like you showed new sides of your personality on Nymph?
I always try to have some element of playfulness in my music, particularly in the visuals, but I hadn’t done it so sweetly until “Coochie.†The subject matter was quite serious to me, honestly. I was singing about my adoration of the female form and how nice the whole experience of being with a woman is. Even as I was writing the song, I realized there aren’t that many cute songs that make me feel good about the vagina, you know? It’s almost like a whispered thing sometimes, even when I speak with other girls about going down on a woman, and that attitude is encouraged in the music that we listen to and the media that we absorb. I was thinking about how nice it would have been while I was younger to have songs to sing that put forth a more cute view of the feminine form.
A lot of your music on Alias feels so danceable. Did dance guide your music on this project as well?Â
I listen to everything, but dance music is definitely my favorite and go-to because it fits every emotion for me. I love the hedonism of club music; I love how it can be so over the top in some of the lyrics because the beat kind of detracts from that a little bit and doesn’t make it sound so dramatic. So this album was a little bit daunting because I knew it wasn’t a straight-up club record, even though there are dance elements in it. As I was making Nymph, I was referring to it as my Ray of Light record because it was in such a pop form.
If it’s not a club record, where are you envisioning people playing Nymph?
Nymph definitely felt like something I wanted people to live within and be able to sort of flick through every mood. We’ve been playing the album in the car a lot, which feels right because the record is definitely a journey: You start in one place and finish in a completely different one.
This interview has been edited and condensed.