WHO IS SEANIE T?
Artiste | Lyricist | Producer | Collaborator | MC | DJ
Seanie T is a true veteran of the UK music scene with a jaw dropping discography featuring some of the most important releases in the history of UK Hip-Hop. Consistently tearing up tracks with collaborators such as Roots Manuva, Blak Twang, Rodney P and Estelle, his inimitable vocal style of Hip-Hop Dancehall fusion has won him critical acclaim amongst fans and peers alike.
“Reggae music is the strength of me; it’s the beat of my heart. I love hip-hop,
but to me there’s no greater music than Reggae.”
Growing up in the depths of East London, Seanie was drawn in to the world of reggae sound systems at a very early age. As a youth he followed sounds like Saxon, Coxon and Unity and soon began DJing with the Ragga Twins on a sound called Unity Hi Power out of North London. At the tender age of 13 he and a group of friends set up their own sound called Little Yout Hi-Fi, which played at local house parties.
At this time Seanie was known as the ‘Dancehall Jumper’ because he would warm up crowds for the main DJs.
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In the mid 1980s, when Hip-Hop was first making its mark internationally, artists like Rakim and Kool Moe Dee enchanted Seanie, but as he puts it, this was mainly “because of the sexy girls dancing in their videos.”
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By the early 90’s the Sound System scene had slowed down a bit in London, but this did not deter the natural born performer as he turned his skills to acting and joined a play called “Black Heroes In The Hall Of Fame”. This was a musical tribute to black achievement throughout history, which was so popular in the UK that the group was taken on tour across America.
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Upon his return to London, Seanie found his musical passion burning stronger than ever and decided to start taking it seriously as a career, so he and a few friends formed a group called New Teas-Da-Ment (Test Da Mentality) and released one AA side single- “Ba Limbo” and “No Title”.
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Artists such as Public Enemy and KRS ONE, whose lyrical dexterity and socially conscious content struck a cord with the young MC, inspiring him to combine his ragga flow with Hip-Hop creating a unique style of rhyme which he christened W.I.L.D. Style (West Indian London Dialect).
...one of the UK’s best MC’s
- Gentleman Kush
The group parted ways a few years later and Seanie began working his own project. It was during this period that he was fortunate enough to meet Roots Manuva and Blak Twang who were in the process of creating their genre defining debut albums “Brand New Second Hand” (1999) and “Dettwork South East” (1996) respectively. Seanie made standout appearances on both albums as well as numerous other collaborations on tracks such as “Skivers Guide” and “Shoosh Remix”.
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Riding the wave of notoriety he received from these features, Seanie T independently released his debut single “S.O.S (Same Ol’ Sean)” (2001) which featured Blak Twang and Roots Manuva on the chorus. Though the single was officially released on Karl Hinds’ Ill Flava Records, the project itself was entirely orchestrated by Seanie including the video which features an all star cast of UK Hip-Hop’s finest, not to mention Seanie’s childhood friend, heavyweight champion Nigel Benn. The project was such a success that the track was later licensed to Island/Def Jam records and featured on the compilation album “Westwood 2”.
By this point Seanie had firmly established himself as an integral part of the UK Hip-Hop scene and found that he was surrounded by many of the scene’s most significant artists, many of whom came from a similar musical background to him.
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With this in mind Seanie T decided to form a collective consisting of some of the scene’s heaviest hitters and named it Dark Horizon.
Under this banner Seanie independently released two mixtapes entitled “The Sun Sets At 6am” (2003) and “Darker Dayz” (2006). These mixtapes epitomised Seanie’s unique style of Hip-Hop/Reggae fusion; they were, as he puts it “a strictly UK artist thing in true bashment style”. In other words both mixtapes featured the cream of UK talent doing several different ‘versions’ of popular UK rhythms.
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Out of this lyrical melting pot Seanie forged his own UK super group - The Blacknificent Seven (Seanie T, Roots Manuva, Rodney P, Estelle, Karl Hinds, Skeme & Jeff3), inspired by his favourite 70’s western flick “The Magnificent Seven”. They released their debut album “Ridin’ Thru Da Undaground” (2007) on Seanie’s Dark Horizon Rekordz.
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With "Ruff, Rugged and Smooth" Seanie T unites all of his past influences and styles and pushes them into the future. Produced in full by Hamburg based DJ Suro, the album touches on elements of roots reggae, dancehall, bashment, soul and pop, all with that unmistakable hip hop swagger.