Craze 24 is set to become one of the most influential personalities of the European hip hop scene. Not content with waiting around for some jumped up A&R from a major to recognise his unstoppable talent for articulating the issues of the day, he did what a lot of rappers think about doing while they sit at home watching Channel U he founded his own record label and started to compose his own destiny.
Back in the day, Craze 24 (then known as Crazy Yout) would sing along with Shabba Ranks, Ninja Man and Buju Banton, captivated by their lyrics. Craze started to put his own rhymes together in his head and as his skill developed he began to jot his thoughts down on paper. The angry teenager had discovered an outlet for the difficult emotions all kids have to deal with. When Craze experimented with laying his bars down on jungle beats he discovered his astonishing ability to entertain. Time passed and he felt good enough to test out his lyrics on an audience. You would find young Crazy at all the biggest raves - Roast, Voodoo Magic and One Nation, pushing his way to the front of a queue of MCs.
Craze spent all his spare time linking up with the man dem, plugging 2 mics into a karaoke machine and emceeing through the night. It was fellow GX artists Poison Child and Mike Starr who first got Craze into hip hop. This was where he honed his skill lyrically and his projection. There was just one problem with his only inspiration coming from the other side of the pond (Wu Tang, Death Squad, Biggie, 2Pac and Mobb Deep) he was rapping with an American accent.
In the winter of 98 Craze 24 collaborated with a group of friends and founded the music management and promotion company Generation Unknown Entertainments aka GX Entertainments. It wasnt long before they were managing their first act: a garage group called Stone Cold GX and on the 3rd of February 2000 they launched a club night called X-RATED, a garage/R&B night held in south London. The pilot was massive and continued twice a month until summer 2002.
It was in 2002 that Craze decided it was time to lose the American twang and start rapping with his true British accent. So, whilst continuing to manage Stone Cold GX he put in the work to transform his art.
As he heads into 2006, Craze 24 has 3 ground breaking music videos under his belt, has been nominated for awards including Channel Us Best of British and hasnt even released any material. With 2 more videos and a single dropping before his mixtape, A Soldier from South and the eagerly anticipated album, Music with Meaning it is going to be impossible to ignore the dazzling talent of Craze 24.