Charlie Sloth

Charlie Sloth

Artist

Born 20th August 1987, Charlie Sloth is an English DJ, producer, actor, MC and TV presenter, who was born and raised in Somers Town, North West London, England.

Originally a grime MC and hiphop artist as a member of the crew Hype Squad, and later Grimey Limeys. Sloth featured on the 2003 BBC documentary ‘Tower Block Dreams’ (albeit, the episode has since been wiped from the internet, possibly due to breaking BBC guidelines), which would later go on to influence the parody of UK Garage and pirate radio culture TV show ‘People Do Just Nothing’.

In 2004, Sloth would release his first mixtape, The Big Boot, alongside his Grimey Limeys crew. He is credited at the time as merely “Sloth”. His second mixtape, Secret Society, was released in 2006.

In 2007, Charlie Sloth began blogging on the YouTube channel ‘slotheo’, where he visited Tim Westwood’s BBC rap show, which Charlie would later end up replacing. Later that year, he won ‘most creative video’ for his video for ‘Guided Tour Of Camden Town’.

In late 2008, he began the ‘Being Charlie Sloth’ series on Jump Off TV, about him being an independent artist. The show was soon picked up by World Star Hip Hop. The show would end up gaining millions of views and features from big American artists.

In 2009, his channel ‘slotheo’ was closed down, and replaced it with CharlieSlothTV, which he used up to 8th August 2010.

In 2010, Charlie released another album titled The Black Book. It was around this time that Charlie began DJ'ing on BBC Radio 1Xtra, in-place of DJ Semtex. On the 23rd of March, Charlie Sloth gained an official show on the network.

Charlie Sloth, on the 1st May 2010, uploaded his first Fire In The Booth featuring artists Mystro and Nathan Flutebox Lee. The series would become a staple on Radio 1Xtra and significantly raise Charlie Sloth’s profile. The concept was simple: An artist, typically from the UK, would come onto the show and freestyle over 2-3 instrumentals. It is sometimes described as a grime show, but this is inaccurate – Fire In The Booth wasn’t specific to a genre and featured Grime, UK Rap, Road Rap and later Drill.

In 2017, Charlie Sloth was instrumental in the rise of Michael Dapaah with his parody characters Big Shaq and MC Quakes. Big Shaq in particular, would end up becoming a world-wide meme due to a particular freestyle he did on Charlie’s Fire In The Booth radio show. Big Shaq is a parody of UK Drill and roadman culture, not grime as he is often mistakenly referred to as.

In August 2017, Charlie dropped The Plug, his first full length studio album. Unlike his former work, Charlie does not rap on any of the tracks, but he did co-write and produce the album. The album was generally well received.

In 2018, Charlie Sloth would leave the BBC and move his Fire In The Booth rap show to Apple Music and his own YouTube Channel. Charlie had been at the BBC for nearly 10 years.