DJ-producer Sherelle: ‘I feed off people’s unexplained anger’

Black artists pioneered dance music, but the scene remains white-dominated. UK rising star Sherelle is dodging the trolls and trying to make change with her platform Beautiful

Wearing a fleece jacket covered in black and white acid smilies, Sherelle is a walking embodiment of dance music when I meet her. The 27-year-old north Londoner and self-professed bocat" - a Jamaican slang term used in a derogatory manner to describe someone who enjoys giving cunnilingus, now proudly reappropriated by her on her T-shirts - is one of the UK's most purely enjoyable new DJs. By blending various global forms of dance music, she is a catalyst for unrestrained raving who has stormed her way into the limelight at 160 beats per minute.

She grew up on dancehall booming out of her mum's hi-fi system, and hip-hop and R&B music videos on cable TV. In my house we had cable illegally, because we couldn't afford to pay for it," says Sherelle, whose younger self would cringe at her mother and older sister. Whatever they were watching, they would dance to. I have a graphic image of Beenie Man's Who Am I, around the time the tune came out, and my mum and sister having the greatest time. I was mortified."