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Ms Dynamite
Background information
Birth name	Niomi Arleen McLean-Daley
Born	26 April 1981 (1981-04-26) (age 27) Archway, London, England
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter, rapper
Instrument(s)	Singing, rapping
Years active	2001–present
Label(s)	Polydor
Website	www.msdynamite.co.uk

Ms Dynamite (born Niomi Arleen MacLean-Daley on 26 April 1981) is a Mercury Prize-winning^[1] English R&B and hip hop singer-rapper.

Biography

Ms Dynamite was born and raised in Archway, a district in North London, to a Scottish mother and a Jamaican father. She grew up listening to reggae and hip hop music. Though she wanted to become a schoolteacher or social worker, her biggest aspiration was to be a musician. She is the eldest of eleven siblings, one of which is a grime artist known as Akala, and attended Acland Burghley School in Tufnell Park.

Career

Ms Dynamite (originally called Lady Dynamite) was first known for her vocals on the UK garage underground track "Booo!", which was regularly played on London pirate radio stations and was later released as a single. Whilst working at the radio station RAW FM, Ms Dynamite was discovered by Richard Forbes at a West End club. After working briefly with the UK garage act So Solid Crew, she released her debut album, A Little Deeper in 2002, featuring the hit songs "It Takes More" and "Dy-Na-Mi-Tee". In 2003, the album was released in the United States to critical acclaim.

In 2002, Dynamite won the prestigious Mercury Music Prize^[1], a music award given to groundbreaking British and Irish acts, for her debut album A Little Deeper. She donated the £20,000 prize to the NSPCC.

Her first public performance was at the closing ceremony of the 2002 Commonwealth Games at the City of Manchester Stadium. On July 2, 2005, she performed at the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park, London. Among the songs performed was "Redemption Song" - a Bob Marley penned song.

On 11 September 2005, she returned to the limelight (having taken time off to have her son, Shavaar) with a new album entitled Judgement Days. Featuring more social commentary, in songs such as the single, "Judgement Day," and the Tony Blair critique, "Mr Prime Minister," reviews of the album were not as favourable as those of her debut. The double-A side lead single, "Judgement Day" and "Father," reached #25 in the UK Singles Chart.

On the 6 January 2006 Ms Dynamite was arrested outside a London nightclub, after a brawl in which she punched a male police officer in the groin whilst in custody. She was convicted and sentenced to sixty hours of community service.

The second single from Judgement Days was due to be "Fall In Love Again" (previously titled "When I Fall In Love"), with a release date of January 30, 2006. A video was shot for the track but, due to her arrest, the single was cancelled. The video did not surface until June 2006, when it was leaked on to the web.

In February 2006, she won the Naomi Award for Worst Urban Act.

Since her trouble with the police in January 2006 and her disappearance from the public eye, Ms Dynamite confirmed that the much rumoured "A Little Darker" album would be released in March 2006 as a mixtape. After the confirmation, the album was pushed back to June 2006. Also, in April 2006, Ms Dynamite confirmed that there would be no more releases from her Judgement Days album, and that she was due to start working on new material after the release of the "A Little Darker" mixtape.

A collection of new and upcoming UK hip-hop and garage artists, A Little Darker was compiled by Ms Dynamite and her rapping brother Akala, who was voted Best Hip Hop Act at the MOBO Awards in September 2006, beating the like of Kanye West and Busta Rhymes.

In November 2006 she took part in a television show called The Race on Sky1. This was a week long event in which ten celebrities had to compete against each other on the track in different races building up to a thirty lap Formula Ford race on Sunday 12 November 2006. After about ten laps into the race disaster struck, and Ms. Dynamite hit the wall on the pit straight at about 100mph. She was air lifted to hospital for overnight observations but later released.

Ancestry

As stated on the programme Ms. Dynamite: In Search of Nanny Maroon in addition to her Jamaican-Scottish parentage, she shares Bajan, English, Irish, German, and Grenadian ancestries.

Future of Ms.Dynamite

After taking a break from the music scene for a couple of years, Dynamite recently guest hosted BBC's radio 1xtra and stated she would be releasing a third album late 2008/early 2009.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Solo

Collaborations

Soundtrack Appearances

• "Dynamite" (On the Ali G Indahouse OST)

Awards and opinion polls

• Mercury Music Prize, Album of the Year 2002^[1]
• MOBO Awards 2003, Best Single, Best Newcomer, UK Act of the Year
• 100 Great Black Britons 2003, 14th place.

References

External links

• Official website
• Ms Dynamite at Allmusic