Dappy

Dappy

Dino "Dappy" Contostavlos (born 11 June 1987) better known by his stage name of Dappy, is a British rapper, singer, actor and MC of Greek Cypriot descent. He is best known for being the lead-singer of the Camden-based hip-hop trio N-Dubz, with his cousin Tulisa Contostavlos and their friend Richard "Fazer" Rawson. He is known for his slightly unusual dress sense and his love for what he describes as "eye-catching headwear". His trademark is wearing a selection of woolly chullos (sometimes referred to as "Dappy hats"), turning up one of or both the ear-flaps of the hat.

Early life

Born and raised in Camden Town, North London, Dino grew up with his parents, Zoi Agorou and Byron Contostavlos, and older brother Spiros. When he was younger, he attended Richard Cobden Primary school, then attending St Aloysius secondary, a Roman Catholic boys-only school in Islington, attending for a year before being expelled for truancy. He recollects in N-Dubz's book, "Against All Odds: From Street Life to Chart Life" how he doesn't remember the school "because I wasn't there often". He then attended Bishop Douglass school when he was around twelve years old, where he got into fights "almost everyday" and recalled that "It always started if someone had been making fun of me or something stupid".

He states:

"When I was a teenager I was getting up to all sorts to make money. Then I had a scare. I realised that I could go to prison for years of my life. Then my dad came into my bedroom one day to find me with some serious drugs. He said: 'What are you doing with this in your hand? You don't need that. You are going to go down!'. Sometimes there were nights where my mum would be crying and begging me not to go out - but I ignored her. I wanted to be able to get my own money and pay for my own things. Be able to show my mum, 'Look, this is what I have got', but I didn't really see that I was making her into an emotional wreck because I would get into trouble with the police".

Dappy eventually dropped out of education when he was 15, but he returned later to study at college and received an A* in English and a B in GCSE Music.

However, realising they shared so much in common, Dappy and Fazer (who he had first met at karate lessons when he was 9, before becoming best friends with him at school) started making beats together and coming up with bars, later asking Dappy's cousin, Tula "Tulisa" Contostavlos, to join the band and started to perform in and around Camden Town from the age of thirteen. At the time they were called the Lickle Rinsers Crew and went under the management of Dappy's father Byron, who had found success with 1970s pop band Mungo Jerry, and to Dappy was the "inspiration behind the band". Byron worked at a local barbers shop, putting all the money he had into equipment and resources for the band at their studio. However, Byron died on 12 April 2007 after a heart-attack and N-Dubz wrote the song "Papa (Can You Hear Me?)", which was played at his funeral and became the group's second biggest hit at #19, and at #17 in the download charts. Dappy later described his dad's death as "the lowest point in our lives, we had no money, no manager, no driver, no accountant, but most of all I had no father - B was everything to me and it hurts so much to think that he never got to see what we have achieved now, but I know he's looking down on us and he'd be really proud".

Dino had the words "RIP Dad" tattooed on his neck and doesn't like to say his dad's name, instead referring to him as "B" or "Uncle B", which was also the name of N-Dubz's debut album. Before Byron died, he said he'd like their album to be called Against All Odds but after his death, the group called their debut album Uncle B in tribute, with their second album being called Against All Odds.

N-Dubz and other projects

Main article: N-Dubz

Dappy appeared on the television show Never Mind the Buzzcocks on 29 November 2007, on Phill Jupitus's team, and wore a trademark "Dappy hat", also giving one to Simon Amstell to wear as part of the gag. Despite vowing he would not return to the show he appeared for a second time on the guest team on 4 December 2008 and for a third time, on Phill's team, which was broadcast on 18 November 2009.

He appeared in Chipmunk's video "Chip Diddy Chip", as one of Chipmunk's school friends, where he wore a messy school uniform and bandana on his head with a baseball cap on backwards. He is known to be a good friend of Chris Moyles and also gets on well with Tinchy Stryder after releasing a single together, called "Number 1", although in the past they have said to have fallen out many times over credits for the song etc. They responded by telling the crowd after their performance at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in May 2009, "and remember, don't believe what the media say 'cos it ain't true".

Dappy has appeared many times on GMTV with Fazer and Tulisa and also went on Big Brother's Little Brother with Tulisa, to discuss the contestants in the 2008 celebrity series. He made a cameo appearance on K.I.G's "Head, Shoulders, Kneez and Toez" music video alongside Fearless and the band's DJ/co-producer Mazer. He also featured on Gracious K's "Migraine Skank" video with Fazer. He normally raps a few verses in N-Dubz's songs and writes "the hooks". Dappy is the only N-Dubz character to appear in their song "Sex", which is featured on Channel AKA past 11pm because of the explicit lyrics and the explicit video.

Dappy has said before he would like to work with Maniac. Dappy has also released two mixtapes called D-A-P's to the Y which features artists such as Frisco, Black the Ripper, Chipmunk,Wiley,Cookie G, Double S and Kano. His second mixtape is called Hot off These Steets and features artists such as Scorcher,Ghetts,G Frsh, Wizzy Wow,Wretch 32, Sway,Tempa T and Mercston. These a solo mixtapes and doesn't involve Fazer or Tulisa, even though Fazer also has two mixtapes. Each mixtape has 40 tracks with songs which are 2-4 minutes long.

Criticism and controversy

In mid 2007 Dappy released "Love For My Slum" with fellow UK rap artist Baker Trouble, which was number one on Channel U (now Channel AKA) for several weeks and was a big hit in the underground urban scene. However, it didn't do as well with the media and was heavily criticized for a scene in which Dappy is stood outside a block of expensive luxury flats with a "rich kid" who is trying to look like a gangster. The Independent wrote, "His lyrics combine jealousy with anger: 'You got too much to lose / You're in a great position... You wouldn't last a minute where I'm from / You'd go missing / So appreciate what you got / 'cos I'm still wishing.' And then he grabs the rich kid by his coat, pulls him toward him, and punches him in the face. The silent boy falls instantly to the pavement ... Do scenes like these suggest that music videos are encouraging their viewers to indulge in criminality?". Other papers put that he was "idolising thuggery". When asked in interviews about the single, following these comments he said "these people need to listen to the lyrics, they are about showing appreciation to what you've got".

In December 2008 Contostavlos pleaded to guilty to two accounts of assault at Chelmsford Magistrates Court, Essex after reportedly spitting in a girl's face while drunk on a night out. Dappy pleaded guilty to the offences and for each count received four weeks' imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, to run concurrently and 100 hours community service. He was also ordered to pay £50 compensation to girl and her friend and £300 costs.

On Thursday 29 January 2009, Contostavlos was arrested and bailed after he was accused of making death threats with a gun. He denied the allegation. His home in Camden was raided following the incident, by police looking for a firearm. Three days later (Saturday 31 January) he was then hauled off a BA flight from Edinburgh to London by police after it touched down, with fellow N-Dubz performer Fazer, after appearing to be acting disorderly. A source said: "They were swearing at kids on the plane, being foul and threatening passengers. Cabin crew called ahead to the police, who were waiting when the plane landed. They were taken away by armed officers."

On Tuesday, 12 January 2010, Contostavlos appeared on the Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 along with Fazer and Tulisa. The show received a text message from a single mother named Chloe Moody in Boston, Lincolnshire complaining that Dappy was "vile" and "a little boy with a silly hat" and that N-Dubz were "losers". Dappy secretly copied Moody's phone number from the studio console and, the following day, tried calling her and sent threatening messages including: "Your [sic] gonna die. U sent a very bad msg towards Ndubz on The Chris Moyels [sic] show yesterday Morning and for that reason u will never be left alone!!! u say sorry I will leave u alone u ****." Moody claimed that she continued to receive messages after declining to apologise, one of which said: "u dum f****** ***head u can call me names over the radio but when I call u direct u chicken out u punk!nana f****** niii, Dappy" (the asterisks are not Dappy's own). Dappy's management later apologised on his behalf and offered free tickets to one of his concerts, but he has not apologised to Moody personally. N-Dubz have now been dropped from the Government's Anti-Bullying 'R U Cyber Safe?' campaign due to this. The rapper appeared with Schools Secretary Ed Balls to launch pop single "R U Cyber Safe?" in November 2009 and Mr Balls said he was "thrilled to have them on board" but he has now dropped the band saying: "This text message was totally unacceptable. There is no excuse. We have no further plans to work with the band."

Dappy was then shamed again live on GMTV on 28 April 2010 after he was on that day's front pages with CCTV pictures of him taking the illegal drug Mephedrone, in a night club. He apologised, insisting "It's just not a thing to be doing. I've learnt my mistake. I'll never do such things again", going on to say, "I was just a bit tipsy and it just fell into the wrong place at the wrong time."

Just a day later, Dappy was kicked out of Alton Towers theme park hotel in Staffordshire, for allegedly smoking cannabis. Contostavlos and his two other companions suspected to be Kaye Vassell and fellow hip-hop musician Fearless after guests complained about a "funny smell" coming from his room, according to reports. An Alton Towers spokesperson told Sky News: "We can confirm a guest was asked to leave."

Personal life

Dappy is the real life cousin of fellow band member Tulisa. Dappy currently lives between his mum's flat and his girlfriend, Kaye Vassel's in the London area, where she and Dappy's 1-year-old son, Gino live. They have split up several times however and in February 2010 it was reported that Contostavlos had been hospitalised after his girlfriend had attacked him. They are however expecting a second child together in November 2010, which is to be a boy.

N-Dubz were forced to reschedule some of their live shows from the Uncle B tour after Dappy was diagnosed with temporary (tone) deafness. He later said the ordeal "was terrible and it has really taught me to take better care of my ears because I wouldn't be the musician I am today if I couldn't hear". However he still "suffers from really bad Tinnitus after ignoring advice not to turn his headphones up" according to his ex-girlfriend and "he can't get to sleep unless there's some loud background noise to drown out the ringing. He will leave the shower running all night, thundering away, so he can sleep".

It has been claimed that Dappy has an obsessive habit of crashing model planes. There was a rumour Dappy had set up his own Greek kebab shop in London called 'Dapz Bapz', a claim which he later rubbished.

He revealed that he is a "massive" Arsenal fan when N-Dubz appeared on Live from Studio Five, gushing "it is an honour to sit next to you" to former Arsenal striker Ian Wright who is one of three hosts on the show.