South London rap talent Cristale is set to share her debut EP ‘What It’s Like To Be Young’, out today.

A seven-track release, produced by long-time collaborator ProdByZel, ‘What It’s Like To Be Young’ is Cristale’s first body of work - an exciting sonic snapshot of one of the most hotly-tipped artists in the UK right now. The record kicks off with 2021 single ‘Morgan’, which sees Cristale offload fierce, rapid-fire bars detailing life on the roads. The track was previously crowned ‘Tune of the Week’ by BBC Radio 1Xtra presenter Nadia Jae and received further support from Snoochie Shy (1Xtra), Robert Bruce (Capital Xtra) andEllie Prohan (Kiss).

“What it’s like to be young is a tribute to my younger self. Turning 21 has been challenging to say the least. Some of these songs date back 2 years, but some of the experiences that I touch base on are at least 10 years old. using the drill beats produced by the talented ‘Zel’ allowed me to stay playful when talking about reality, real rap isn’t always on a slow beat. I’m using this project to say congratulations to my younger self, all of the challenges that I faced, I overcame, and now because of the music, the process will live on forever, and always mean something, somewhere.”

Closing single ’13 Going On 30’ leads the campaign, with visuals directed by Yukki,depicting settings of innocence that we all remember from our youth, juxtaposed by an introspective, thought-provoking performance from Cristale, as she details the bitter-sweet surroundings of her upbringing, and the need to grow up fast.

“13 Going On 30 is an overview of my life through secondary school. I feel like when I turned 13 my consciousness was raised slightly, I realised I was getting older, my mindset was changing and I started to look at life differently. As a result of this, my mum found that I started to stress about a lot more things, comparing me to a 30 year old, not only because of stress, but because of maturity, which led her to quote the title of the famous film 13 Going On 30 in attempt to shed light on how my youthful appearance conflicts with my old soul.”