MANY people had no idea who Speech Debelle was when she was announced as last year's Mercury Music Prize winner.

Plucked from apparent obscurity, the rapper had only sold 5,000 copies of her debut album, Speech Therapy — probably the lowest sales figure for a winner of the award.

Against the odds she beat off a host of other, better established artists, including Kasabian, Florence and the Machine, Bat for Lashes and La Roux.

Now £20,000 richer — the prize money from winning the award — and on the road to superstardom —the day after she won, sales of her album on Amazon increased by 4,000 per cent — her future is looking bright.

Born in London to middle-class Jamaican parents, Speech — real name Corynne Elliot — began writing poetry aged nine. At 13, she would rap for her mates in lessons.

Repeatedly suspended from school for being a difficult pupil, Speech started to write down the feelings and experiences which would prove the origins of her album.

She spent her late teens and early 20s living in hostels.

Older, wiser — and presumably calmer — she moved back in with her mother at the age of 23. In 2005 she had her first meeting with the independent record label Big Dada, which also looks after the UK rapper Roots Manuva, coolly informing bosses she wanted to be a "hip-hop Tracy Chapman."

When she is rapping and singing, her voice is soft, young and feminine, showing a vulnerability towards her lyrics.

Speech, 26, told me how she felt when her name was read out at the awards ceremony back in September 2009.

"It was a great feeling to find out I had won the award," she said. "I felt relief — relief that after all this time of saying how confident I was of winning, it actually did happen — otherwise I'd have looked pretty silly.

"I was emotional up there. I guess it's a feeling of acceptance."

The 26-year-old explained how seeing Ms Dynamite win the Mercury prize in 2002 was a big inspiration for her.

"When she got it I thought, 'well, I can get one too'," she said. "It's weird because me, Ms Dynamite and Dizzee Rascal — who won the award in 2003 — all have very different styles of music; the only thing that puts us together is the colour of our skin."

Speech tells me how her life has changed since winning the award.

"It has made my music more public," she said.

"This is important. I'm making my second album at the moment. I am putting the money I won back into my music so I can generate more.

"I have to pinch myself sometimes — especially when I was in Vogue magazine for the Class of 2010. It's all part of the dream."

Speech compares the British music industry's support of black artists unfavourably with the set-up in America.

"England is a predominantly rock and pop country," she said.

"I don't want to be looked at like a UFO. I want to be on the same television shows and the same stages, as someone like La Roux. Here they're not used to dealing with black stars. That's why Estelle ain't here," she said, referring to the Hammersmith rapper who found real success only after relocating to New York.

"People in this country may not verbally abuse me on the street like they did when I was young, but racism is still here.

"I object to switching on EastEnders and seeing a young black boy sweeping the streets. "England's still incredibly behind in the way it portrays black people in the media. It's not at an acceptable level. That's something I would like to help change."

Speech has her sights set high with more awards on her radar.

" I've got a lot more work to do, like winning some Grammies, and an Ivor Novello songwriting award. That would be great."

Support tomorow night comes from American rap artist Gift of Gab.

Doors at the Phoenix open at 8.30pm, and tickets cost £12, with concessions available.

Details: 01392 667080, or visit www.exeterphoenix.org.uk.