Kid Sister brings in star guests

Kid Sister otherwise known as Melissa Young

Kid Sister, aka Melissa Young, runs her finger across a long scar on her elbow.

"It was pretty gory, pretty gross," she says reflecting on the surgery which rescued her pop career before it'd barely begun.

"I finished my album on a Tuesday and had my surgery on the Friday - they had to take a nerve and put it in a new place," the 29-year-old grimaces.

"It was degenerative so it would have gotten worse and worse.

"I needed to have it done. If I didn't have it done, I was out. Plus, to add insult to injury I had to pay for out of my own pocket - many thousands of dollars."

'Struggling' start

The operation is just one of a handful of defining moments in the Chicago rapper and singer's brief career so far. Back at the start the obstacle was simple: money.

Kanye West collaborated with Kid Sister on their track Pro Nails

"I was working three jobs and I was riding my bicycle to all my jobs and it really sucked.

"I worked all these hours and got my degree finally but I couldn't make my rent. I couldn't make my bills, nothing. I was really struggling."

She took one look at her brother (Josh 'J2K' Young) from hip hop collective Flosstradamus and made a practical decision.

"He was touring and making all this money," she shrugs.

Throwing herself into music, less than 12 months later she found herself making beats with Spank Rock and collaborating with Kanye West on her debut single Pro Nails.

"It went from 0-60 in two seconds and never slowed down," she giggles.

That's the kind of speed she's channelled into her debut album Ultraviolet, released in the US but due out in the UK in early 2010.

Scrapped songs

Aside from the constant threat of her painful condition, early recordings didn't exactly go to plan.

"We took just as much time as we needed to take to make it right," she says.

Getting it right meant scrapping half of the album when she first thought she'd had it complete.

"We had it how we thought we wanted it then we listened to it and it didn't sound just right.

"There was something a little bit off about it. There were songs that weren't exactly cohesive.

"You only get one first album. You got to be anal and crazy and uptight - I am all of those things. I had to put my foot down."

The result is, in her own words, a mix of "the gayest house you can imagine and hip hop".

Kid Sister has worked with Daniel Merriweather

Back at the drawing board she enlisted the help of producers Rusko and Count And Sinden alongside guests, apart from West, including Daniel Merriweather and Estelle.

"He was in Germany or somewhere - it was the release week of his album and he got on one of my songs," she smiles.

Estelle pals

Estelle's a different story. Having been introduced through mutual friends the pair are now great friends.

"On a personal level I'm like her biggest fan. She's really cool, not a diva, just cool," she froths.

The track they collaborate on, Step, is inspired by the film How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998).

"The movie was about this woman in her 40s and she goes back to Jamaica and meets this dude and he's younger and she gets turned out. This song is the inverse of that," she explains.

"It's about a guy who tries to holler but he hollers too hard, you just got to shut him down.

"It's like, 'Baby, this is your dream and I'm following my dream'."

With money and health troubles in the past nothing looks likely to prevent Kid Sister's dream now.