Major British news outlets including The Guardian and The Sun have reported that a leading British rapper and producer Dot Rotten has died in The Gambia. He was 37.
The musician, real name Joseph Ellis-Stevenson, reportedly died in The Gambia. His family reportedly confirmed the death to the BBC.
Born and raised in south London, Ellis-Stevenson began producing music in childhood and was still a teenager when he released his debut mixtape This Is the Beginning, in 2007. He became celebrated as one of the core beat-makers in the then flourishing grime (a form of electronic dance music) scene, with tracks such as Petrol Bomb and Bazooka providing heavy yet spry backings for MCs. He released seven volumes of his Rotten Riddims series, plus a number of other mix tapes.
Rotten was an accomplished MC himself. He crossed over to a wider audience after being signed to Mercury Records in 2011. He was nominated for the BBC’s Sound of … poll in 2012, and later that year released his only solo Top 20 hit, Overload.
His debut album for Mercury was not a commercial success and Ellis-Stevenson left the label, changed his artist name to Zeph Ellis, and refocused on production.
The Standard could not confirm the place or circumstances of his death.
