Lowkey

Lowkey's Biography

Kareem Dennis was born in London on May the 23rd 1986 and is of English and Iraqi Arab decent, He's better known by his hip hop name Lowkey and is a musician and political activist.

Lowkey was born and raised in London by his Iraqi Mother and English father and by the age of 12 he began to rap in an American accent but soon found his own voice. Dennis started to attend open mic sessions at a record shop located on Carnaby Street, Central London known as "Deal Real".

The first time Lowkey went into Real Deal and introduced himself he was told that another regular at the open mic sessions was using the alias, they then had to battle each other to decide who would carry on the name in which Dennis won.

His older brother suffered from Mental illness but was never diagnosed committed suicide when Dennis was 18, Dennis has said "the loss of his brother taught him that some things can never make sense or be understood".

Lowkey first began building his reputation through releasing a series of mixtapes before he turned 18 titled 'Keys to The Game', there was a total of 3 mix tapes in the series. Lowkey took a break from the music scene and later came back in 2008 with wider music coverage, featuring on BBC Radio and performing at a number of festivals such as Electric Proms, Glastonbury, T in the Park and Oxegen just before his first solo album.

Lowkeys support from the mainstream media began to decline due to his outspoken political views however this won't stop such a talented MC, Lowkey continued to go from strength to strength as an independent solo artist touring around the world in such countries as Greece, Palestine, United States, Italy, Australia, Lebanon and many more.

Lowkey released his second independent solo album titled 'Soundtrack To The Struggle" on the 16th of October 2011. The album was released on the Itunes Hip Hop album chart in which it debut at #1 in the UK, #3 in Canada, #4 in Australia and #8 in the US.

On the 17th of April 2012 lowkey stated via his Facebook page that he would be taking another hiatus from the music business with the following statement.

"After many months of contemplation I have decided to step away from music and concentrate on my studies. Maybe at some point I will get back into it again but at this stage I feel I should direct my energy in different, more helpful directions. The ego is a destructive thing and I feel this business and these social networks in particular have a tendency to feed it in an unhealthy way. I will be deactivating this page. Thank you for all those who have supported me over the years. See you on the other side people." - Lowkey Via Facebook