THE Rap Game winner Layyah etched her name in history as the first female artist to win the hit BBC show last night.
The 22-year-old triumphed over her fellow finalists CBliminal, Haydog and Only Zizou to claim the £20k cash prize during an intense finale.
Her ground-breaking victory marked a pivotal moment in the series which has traditionally been dominated by male contestants.
Fronted by Krept, Konan and DJ Target, the BBC show provides a platform for some of the UK’s best rising rappers to showcase their talent through a series of intense challenges.
With fresh new line-up, never seen before challenges and unexpected surprises, this season of The Rap Game UK has been one of the show’s most thrilling yet.
From the start Layyah captivated both the audience and judges with her fresh take on challenges as well as her blends of different styles, even incorporating opera into some of her performances.
Last night’s episode saw the contestants compete in a challenge where they performed in front of BBC 1Xtra DJ Kenny All Star.
Layyah’s freestyle rap left the 1Xtra presenter speechless, who later branded the rapper as having the potential to be a “generational talent”.
Speaking to The Sun about her momentous win, Layyah said: “It’s crazy, I can’t lie, I can’t believe it. Honestly I’m humbled by it and it means a lot to me.
“I have a lot of big shoes to fill in terms of the women in the industry and I just want to make everyone proud, myself first and foremost but the world proud because I’ve literally made history.”
The show wasn’t without it’s ups and downs for the winner as she suffered a tragic loss right before entering the competition.
Layyah opened up about how some of her hardest moments on the show, discussing the time when she had to perform a rap about her life, admitting: “The last one was to do a rap about an experience that has happened in your life, like a traumatic experience or anything, and the day that I did that rap was literally the day after my grandma died and they even asked me: are you sure you’re gonna be able to come on [the show]?
“I was like: I need to do this right now, regardless of how I’m feeling. I need to do it, but it wasn’t easy.
“After challenges I was in my room just crying about that because it wasn’t easy.”
Speaking to The Sun, The Rap Game star broke down in tears over the challenges she faced during the competition, going on to sob: “Sorry for crying, it wasn’t easy at all.
“I did what I needed to do, because if I crumbled, or I wasn’t strong, then I wouldn’t have won. I was able to go through that and essentially I’ve made history and I’m humbled by it.”
With a whopping £20k in prize money, Layyah spoke about what she’s going to do with her new found funds.
“I’m definitely going to put it towards studio time and put it towards some projects that I have coming up. Anything to do with music, that’s going to better my career and give my fans what they want, that’s what I’m going to use it for.”
Now the competition has officially come to an end, Layyah revealed that she plans to release an EP as her next move.
“I plan to have an EP come out in January sometime, possibly featuring Respect and Power on there. That’s a fan favourite, everyone loves that song so hopefully I can get that out there,” she added.
