Lowkey is a British musician, poet, playwright and political activist of English and Iraqi descent. He first came to fame through a series of mixtapes he released before he was 18, before taking a hiatus from the music business. He would return in 2008 with wider music coverage, featured on BBC Radio and appearing at various festivals and concerts including the Electric Proms, Glastonbury, T In The Park and Oxygen in the build up to his first solo album, as well as collaborating with other famous British musicians to form a supergroup.
Early life
Dennis was born in London to an Iraqi mother and an English father. From the age of twelve he began to rap, initially imitating American rappers but soon using his own accent. He began attending the open mic sessions which took place at the Deal Real record shop on Carnaby Street, Central London. The first time he went he introduced himself as Lowkey and was told there was already a regular there by that name; the two had a rap battle over the use of the name which Dennis won.
Music career
Solo work
The first part of his mixtape series Key To The Game, was released independently in 2003. Within a year and a half he had released a second and third volume, all of which gained critical acclaim from UK hip hop circles. Though the first volume largely used music from other artists, the second was mostly original work in conjunction with numerous artists and producers while the third, which had no skits or short songs like a traditional mixtape would, was mostly his own work. Despite releasing the third mixtape in 2005, it would be another three years until he released his album proper preferring instead to explore other aspects of his career until then.
While Lowkey was busying himself with European tours in support of Immortal Technique, Canibus, and Dead Prez, he began to make musical contacts and set about recording his debut album proper. Though stalled by other artistic endeavours, Dear Listener eventually was released in January 2009. He bookended the year with another release, Uncensored, a mixtape compiling new material and collaborations with highlights from the entire Key To The Game series and Dear Listener. This was released digitally in December through iTunes.
Collaborations
Lowkey joined a hip-hop group called Poisonous Poets that released one self-titled mixtape in 2005. Poisonous Poets (sometimes known as Double P) was founded by Doc Brown whom Lowkey met at Real Deal records. The group also consisted Reveal, Stylah, Tony D and Therapist.
Lowkey's manager passed on the first two parts of Key To The Game to Jon McClure, frontman of Reverend and The Makers who is also an outspoken activist. Wanting to mix popular music with politics, and mix indie rock with hip-hop, the two set about making a supergroup, Mongrel, composed of other noted musicians. Also in the band is Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders and ex-bassist Andy Nicholson alongside bassist of Babyshambles Drew McConnell and a revolving set of other musicians. They have had trouble coordinating their busy careers to perform live dates and their debut album has already been pushed back from October to 2009 along with a February tour. The album, Better Than Heavy, was released for free with The Independent on 7 March.
After touring with Immortal Technique the two made a single, "Voices of the Voiceless" which was released in September 2009 after a one minute preview was officially released on YouTube. The song touches on racism, world revolution, war, colonialism and other global political issues.
In December 2009, Lowkey revealed he would release a second part to "Long Live Palestine" featuring international artists including Palestinian rap group DAM, Anglo-Palestinian soloist Shadia Mansour, The Narcicyst from Iraq, Iranian artists Hich Kas and Reveal, Syrian-Lebanese performer Eslam Jawaad and African-American Muslim Hasan Salaam. The single was packaged in an EP with the first part and an instrumental. It went on to reach the Number 1 position in the Hip Hop Charts of both Amazon and iTunes.
In February 2009, he travelled to Palestine and Palestinian refugee camps around the West Bank area to perform fundraising shows to help rebuild the Gaza Strip but was detained by the Israel Police for nine hours at Ben Gurion International Airport and interrogated. Later in 2009, he travelled with M-1 of Dead Prez to carry out a humanitarian aid mission and bring medical aid to the Palestinian people in Gaza. M-1 mentioned in an interview with PyroRadio.com that a collaboration between the two had been made "I met up with a guy called Lowkey over there as well who's from London as well, I had a chance to meet with him, he's a good brother, we built a lot, it was real cool, we gotta get the song out."
to watch full interview go to http://www.youtube.com/djbonesandmr13
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Lowkey - Revolution and Imperialism in the Middle East - Counterforum 2011by fourmanfilms6,062 views
the cunt taking this interview fucked up. <3 ya lowkey
i47265i245762495624 2 months ago
pacquio?!......how you gonna just par off his answer like that...
Scooba87 4 months ago
Love that Black Thought in the background... but I'd rather hear what Lowkey has to say
snoop890 4 months ago
wtf wots wiv da background music very hard to hear, much love lowkey but stupid guy whoz taking da inteview
shamema1 5 months ago
kind of hard to hear him with all that background music.
kpw84u2 5 months ago
i never knew he supported canibus, thats sick, canibus is one of the illest
joeaiden 11 months ago
bro 2 smart haha
MrAloo14 1 year ago
Sort the mic out!!!
IceFreshProductions 1 year ago