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Charlie in his Being Charlie Sloth web show |
How Charlie was brought into being
CHARLIE SLOTH
SOMEBODY once told me that if you want a job doing properly, you’ve got to do it yourself. And after I worked out that nobody was willing to help me, that’s exactly what I did.
I am the artist, I am the manager, I am the street team, I am the editor, I am the web designer, I am the producer, I am the director. I am being Charlie Sloth – modern day artist.”
Thus begins former Haverstock pupil Charlie Sloth’s massive internet hit, Being Charlie Sloth, an online show in which the 27-year-old hip-hop artist details his daily struggle to the top.
Online, he’s a man of many faces. But all of them are his true self.
He is his own manager, producer, director, etc, he’s just taken it one step further and created characters to match.
Charlie says: “I was putting a lot of work in and felt like nobody was paying attention over here so I needed to do something – especially when The Source magazine was calling me the best rapper in the UK. I needed to bring people to my website every week while still keeping things entertaining, letting people know how much I do myself without coming across as some kind of egomaniac. So I came up with the idea of playing all the characters of all the things I do within my career myself.”
Charlie’s first initiation into hip-hop came when he was just 11.
“My mum was a cleaner in Parliament Hill, cleaning all the wealthy people’s houses,” he says. “I once had to go with her to this lady’s house and, being the mischievous kid I was, I saw a tape on the side and just couldn’t help myself. I put it in my pocket.
“I went home put the tape on and it was NWA Straight Outta Compton. I listened to it religiously, learned every word.”
Charlie and his best friend practised rapping on his sister’s battered old karaoke machine, and it paid off. In years to come, he would be a regular MC on the burgeoning grime circuit.
But as a teenager, Charlie messed around a bit too much at school, and later landed himself in jail by the age of 18.
Now 27, he’s known to millions of hip-hop fans worldwide thanks to his online show and has had the likes of Eminem, D12 and Flo Rida ask to appear alongside him.
Charlie grew up in Somers Town, before moving in above the New Journal offices, in Camden Road.
When he left prison he decided to try to make it as a hip-hop artist.
“There was a point in my life where I ended up going to prison,” says Charlie. “I came out and found it very hard to get on in normal day to day life, in terms of getting a job, getting anybody willing to take a chance on me. It wasn’t until I got to early 20s that I realised I had ability and talent through the medium of music so I thought I’d give it a try.
“From there it was a case of educating myself in what I wanted to do.
“I felt there was nobody around that could give me that guidance and show me how things are done so I taught myself how to produce music. But I had no one to make music videos for me.”
Now a father-of-three, Charlie’s built a music studio on the side of his house, works 18 hours a day, and attracts 1.5 million viewers weekly. And Biggie Smalls’ producer is working on his new album.
Things are looking up.
l Charlie’s first single, One More Drink, is released on January 18. Find his show at www.charliesloth.com
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