The rapper and actor – real name Natalie Athanasiou – is joined by V&A Assistant Researcher Josephine Small, who has hand-picked three items from the museum collections that help to tell the story of the grime genre.
The first object is a Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), as owned by Boy Better Know star JME, and used to make some of the first-ever grime beats.
Next, NoLay revisits her personal notebooks, donated to V&A East Museum for The Music is Black: A British Story. As well as coffee stains and make-up marks, these everyday items contain her original handwritten lyrics for Unorthodox’s hugely influential track No Help or Handouts, and dialogue for Mandy, her character in the landmark TV show, Top Boy.
She also gives her point of view on one of grime’s seminal cultural moments, when Skepta won the Mercury Music Prize for his album Konnichiwa in 2016, as captured in Hyperfrank’s epic photograph.
Along the way, NoLay also recalls how she snuck into a club to make her emceeing debut, her early experiences on pirate radio, and how she won over a highly sceptical Glastonbury crowd, despite an epic tech fail.
You can see objects featured in this episode, as well as NoLay’s jacket from Top Boy, on display as part of The Music is Black exhibition at V&A East Museum, which runs until the end of 2026.
To watch or listen to the Three Objects miniseries in full, head to Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube.
