“People say I’m good, but they could be being nice, right?” Despite winning the 2009 Mercury Prize, modesty has not escaped Speech Debelle. Friendly Fires and Florence & the Machine were on the shortlist but Speech Therapy, her debut, spoke the loudest to the judging panel.

Debelle, real name Corynne Elliot, a 26-year-old rapper from London, certainly lives up to her name. Her lyrics hark back to her tricky upbringing including a spell living in hostels, but she’s not one to sit in the corner and cry. Headlining the Exposure Music Awards! East, a showcase of talent from East England at The Junction, she justified her new found acclaim at a bash considerably more low-key than the Mercury.

Not your conventional rapper, she opened with ‘The Key’, backed by her boys, The Therapists, on drums, double bass and acoustic guitar. Although a talented wordsmith, she didn’t spit out her lyrics at the expense of the strong melodies explored by her jazz band instrumentation. Honesty about her roots rings out in lines like “So as the chapter close that’s how the story goes/As I’ve grown I’ve learnt that friends turn to foes”.

Speaking of roots, she followed up with ‘Wheels in Motion’, released as a duet with Roots Manuva. He couldn’t make it, but as Speech promised, “My boys can do his part just as good”. She wasn’t lying. Her influencs of reggae, hip-hop and soul fused together brilliantly on songs ‘Go Then, Bye’ and ‘Spinnin’.

The crowd, if you could call it that, was small but more than ready to step into Speech’s world. There were moments when she was aware of the size of her audience, encouraging sheepish onlookers to shuffle up and christening a bespectacled gig-goer in the front row ‘Zane Lowe’, but the disappointing turnout didn’t perturb her for long. Banter with previous act Metis (winner of the award’s best local live act, despite confessing that he’s waiting for his British passport in the post) also dispelled any awkwardness. The odd introduction to her songs wouldn’t have gone amiss, though.

“Honesty is courage and since I got the heart of a lion then there’s no sense in lying”. So she declares on ‘Finish this Album’. We’re not going to lie and we’re not just being nice – Speech Debelle, you’re more than just good.