MOST Asian girls dream of becoming a model, Bollywood actress or maybe even a popstar but one teenager had her heart set on taking the world by storm as an MC rapper.

Today that dream is very quickly turning into reality. Ms Scandalous, 21, of Southall, is on course to become one of the biggest female Asian MCs with the release of her debut album Ladies First on Monday, less than two years after a chance meeting with urban Asian collective Panjabi Hit Squad during her Saturday job.

She explains: "I have always had a creative side and was writing poems and songs since I was 11 before getting into the garage music scene at the age of 14/15.

"I was writing lyrics for a good few years before I got a part-time job at the Metro Music store on Southall Broadway. A lot of famous DJs and music producers used to come in to the shop to buy their records and I used to say hello to them."

It was on one of these days that Ms Scandalous's life was about to change forever. Dee from Panjabi Hit Squad struck up a conversation with the then 19-year-old.

She recalled: "He asked me what I did and I told him I was studying performing arts at university but I also rapped."

Dee asked Ms Scandalous, who prefers not to reveal her real name, to audition for them and the rest, as they say, is history.

The former Villiers High School pupil rapped on the Panjabi Hit Squad track entitled Hai Hai and signed to their label in 2002. She began working with them and performing with them up and down the country, juggling her university life and family life at the same time.

Markie Mark, of the Panjabi Hit Squad, believes Ms Scandalous will realise her dream of taking the world by storm and was surprised nobody else snapped her up.

He said: "We have worked with other artists before and they have taken months to do things for us. We told Ms Scandalous what we wanted and she came back to us in one day with her lyrics written.

"She shares the same attitude as us. Her lyrics appeal to girls and young people. The story she is telling is about her life here. Other female artists have been looking back to India in their songs."

MCing is not something typical Asian girls do but Ms Scandalous has been supported by her Hindu Punjabi parents and brothers throughout her life despite being the youngest and only female member of the family.

She said: "My family are really supportive and they are behind me all the way. They knew that I would get into this industry somehow and I think everyone is really proud."

Ms Scandalous is in the final year of her performing arts and arts management degree at an East Midlands university and had to find time to write her dissertation as well as laying down tracks for her debut album.

Ladies First took eight months to produce from start to finish with Ms Scandalous writing all her own material and collaborating with a number of artists such as Panjabi Hit Squad, up-and-coming singer Alyssia and Punjabi vocalist Jasbinder Narula who features on the debut single Aaja Soniya.

Ms Scandalous said: "With my music, it's a mixture of British and Asian flavours. It's quite a diverse range of music such as R n' B, hip-hop, garage and lyrically desi (Indian)."

Although Ms Scandalous has been brought up speaking Punjabi, all of her MC-ing and rapping is done in English. She said: "I rap in English because I can express myself better. I can't do that in Punjabi although I will include the odd Punjabi word in my rap."

Aaja Soniya is playing on all the major Asian radio stations such as Club Asia and BBC Asian Network and her video, produced by Brit award winning producer Simon of PTC Media, is number four in the MTV base chart and is also regularly requested on the B4U Music and Zee Music channels.

But the buck doesn't stop there. Ms Scandalous, aptly named because she wants to make headlines for her music, would like to work with British hip-hop artists such as Kano and The Street and wants to be the next Asian female artist on Top of the Pops but her ultimate dream is to own her own record label.

For more information on Ms Scandalous or to view a clip of her latest video Aaja Soniya/Spread Love visit www.ms-scandalous.com

Ladies First is out on Monday.