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Dubzy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dubzy shooting for GRM Daily in 2014.

Jesse James, better known by his stage name Dubzy, is an English grime MC, actor and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of music collective and fashion label Snazz. Since 2022, he has been in a distribution agreement with Universal Music.

He won Red Bull's 2016 Grime-a-Side championship with the Derby team[1] and finished second in UK Grime's best MC's of 2016.[2]

In November 2016, Dubzy signed a publishing deal with Sony ATV and Reprezent for a single alongside fellow grime artists Kannan & Eyez entitled 'Highs & Lows'.[3]

Career

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Dubzy started out producing on PlayStation's Music 2000 music creation program at the age of 12 before moving on to music production on FL Studio as well as picking up rapping in his early teens. At 15, he released his first LP entitled 'On Music Daily: Vol. 1'. James released a series of mixtapes between 2012 and 2014 including Apples & Blackberrys[4] and Beat Is My Counsellor,[5] the latter of which spent three consecutive months in Audiomack's top 5 most downloaded mixtapes/albums in 2012.[6] In 2014, he released Gift of the Gab; the CD features collaborations with Bloodline recording artist Paper Pabs as well as tracks with Roll Deep MC Trim.[7]

In 2015, BBC Radio 1 DJ Charlie Sloth selected Dubzy as one of his three 'MC's to watch in 2016' and praised Snazz headwear in a Fire in the Booth workshop episode of his live prime-time radio show. An invitation from Tim Westwood to perform a Crib Session[8] on Capital Xtra alongside fellow Grime artist Eyez followed.[9] The two also performed at every leg of the MOBO Awards' Unsung tour and released a single Let's Play a Game[10] in the same period. Dubzy has featured on a number of singles by other artists including Hear Me[11] which debuted on Sian Anderson's BBC 1xtra show and features him alongside Roll Deep's Manga, Rukus, Kobi Onyame and Eyez.[12] Dubzy also collaborated with Z Dot, Mez, Snowy, Row-d & Eyez on 'Raise The Bar' single last year.[13][14]

On 1 January 2016, Dubzy released single "Hungry For Dis" alongside Eyez and Kannan.[15] He became the face of high street retailer Footasylum's[16] #WeAreFootasylum campaign.[17][18]

In October 2016, Dubzy signed a publishing deal with Sony ATV and Reprezent for a single entitled 'Highs and Lows'.[19] He won Red Bull's Grime-a-Side 2016[20] national championship for the Derby team, the smallest team/city in the competition.[21][22]

References

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  1. ^ Williams, Phillip. "Grime-A-Side: Watch the live final". Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  2. ^ "UK Grime on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  3. ^ SBTV (22 March 2016). "Watch: Kannan, Eyez and Dubzy reflect on 'Highs and Lows' - SBTV". SBTV. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  4. ^ "Apples & Blackberrys (Promo CD) - Dubzy — Listen and discover music at Last.fm". Last.fm. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  5. ^ "The Beat Is My Counsellor". GrimeHQ. 13 May 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  6. ^ "freshgrind - "Dubzy - Beat Is My Counsellor" - Download | Added by freshgrind | Audiomack". Audiomack.com. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  7. ^ "Spotify". Play.spotify.com. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  8. ^ "#WAVYAFFAIR on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  9. ^ "Eyez with da Tribe - Westwood Crib Session [Video]". thegrimereport.blogspot.co.uk. 28 September 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  10. ^ "Shazam". Shazam.com. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
  11. ^ "Hear Me (via iTunes)". Itunes.apple.com.
  12. ^ "Hear Me (feat. Eyez, Manga, Dubzy, Kobi Onyame, Rukus & Kobi Onyame)". BBC. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  13. ^ "Listen To Zdot's "Raise The Bar" f/ Eyez, Uncle Mez, Dubzy, Snowy & Row D". Complex UK. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  14. ^ "Watch 46 grime MCs compete in Raise The Bar". Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  15. ^ "Kannan & Eyez drop video for 'Highs & Lows' with Dubzy | RWD". Rwdmag.com. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  16. ^ "Footasylum x Dubzy and Eyez". YouTube. 2 September 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  17. ^ "Footasylum collaborate with Dubzy and Eyez - UK Grime". Ukgrime.com. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  18. ^ "Could Birmingham Ever Surpass London as the Home of Grime? - Noisey". Noisey. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  19. ^ "Kannan & Eyez Feat. Dubzy – Highs & Lows (Video)". Content Dope. 22 March 2016. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  20. ^ UK, Red Bull. "Red Bull Studios Presents Grime-A-Side". Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  21. ^ "Red Bull Grime a Side: As it happened. Maninder Ram - Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College". This Is Local London. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
  22. ^ "Derby team win rapping contest to put 'city on the map'". Derby Telegraph. 21 November 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2016.[permanent dead link]