Tyrone Mark Lindo (born 16 November 1985), known by his stage name Big Narstie, is a British MC, author, rapper, singer, songwriter, comedian and television presenter. He started his career in 2002 as a member of

grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust * Grime (music genre), a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game * "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Wood ...

crew "N Double A," though he is better known for his solo work and as an

internet personality An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social m ...

performing comedy relating to grime music and the surrounding culture. He is also known for hosting his own chat show, ''

The Big Narstie Show ''The Big Narstie Show'' is a British chat show, presented by rapper Big Narstie and comedian Mo Gilligan, that debuted on Channel 4 on 29 June 2018. Big Narstie is a rapper from the grime scene and has been cited as one of the original purveyo ...

''.

Career

2000s

In 2007, Big Narstie signed to independent label, Dice Recordings. His track "Brushman" was also named ''RWD'' magazine's "Song of the Year". Sampling Coldplay, it was supported by personalities from multiple mainstream radio stations. Big Narstie has featured on records including

Professor Green Stephen Paul Manderson (born 27 November 1983), better known by his stage name Professor Green or simply Pro Green, is an English rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, television personality and mental health activist from London. Growing up on ...

's "Before I Die Remix" and

N-Dubz N-Dubz are an English hip hop trio from Camden Town, London, consisting of cousins Dappy and Tulisa, and Fazer. After winning a MOBO Award for Best Newcomer in 2007, N-Dubz briefly signed to Polydor Records before joining All Around the Wor ...

's "N-Dubz vs N.A.A", from their debut album ''

Uncle B ''Uncle B'' is the debut studio album released by British hip hop group N-Dubz. The album is dedicated to former N-Dubz manager and father of Dappy, Byron Contostavlos, who died shortly before the band were signed to their second record label ...

.'' Big Narstie continued to record and released BIG NARSTIE three other mixtapes: ''Mind of a Fat Guy'', ''Drugs and Chicken'', and ''I'm Betta Than U'', which had guest appearances from Giggs, Scorcher, and Wretch 32.

2010s

Big Narstie released his first mix CD of the year in February 2012, called ''Pain Overload''. Shortly after, ''Pain Is Love'' was released in July for free download via

SB.TV SB.TV Global Ltd, also known as SB.TV or SmokeyBarz, is a British music media company founded by Jamal Edwards and a small team of young people who work on web-based content. The platform was created on 2 November 2006, and its origins in urban m ...

. Big Narstie's first official E.P, ''#PAIN'' was released in October and entered at number 5 in the iTunes UK Hip Hop chart and he won the 2012 Urban Music Award (UMAs) for Best Grime Act beating artists like Skepta, Lethal Bizzle and Dot Rotten. In 2013, Big Narstie released his second EP ''Don't Fuck Up the Base''. The EP ''Big Narstie'' was the highest selling grime EP of 2013. He also had a ''Don't Fuck up the Base'' EP launch party, which featured music artists, Flirta D, Mic Righteous, Scrufizzer, Kozzie and DJ's, DJ Cameo, Charlie Sloth, DJ Logan Sama. He performed at a number of festivals across Europe including The Wireless Festival, A Day in Dam with English Frank and Black The Ripper, the Hip Hop Kemp Festival in Czech Republic and The Outlook Festival in Croatia. He also won UMA 2013 Best Grime Act award for the second year in a row. At the end of 2013 he released an EP ''Hello Hi.'' with True Tiger. Noisey named Big Narstie as their name of 2013. and he also reviewed the year at ''Fact'' magazine. In 2014, Big Narstie released ''What's the Story Brixton Glory Part II'', where he covered various Britpop classics by artists such as

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

. He then embarked on the Base Defence League (BDL) Tour around the UK, which had a host of music artists supporting him. Big Narstie was featured in Craig David's single, " When the Bassline Drops", which was released on 27 November 2015. The song saw commercial success, entering the UK top 10 and being certified Gold. In 2017 he rapped on the

Enter Shikari Enter Shikari (stylised as enter: shikari and occasionally as ΣΠΤΣ℞ SΗΦΚ∆℞Φ) are a British rock band formed in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England in 1999 by bassist Chris Batten, lead vocalist and keyboardist Rou Reynolds, and drum ...

single "

Supercharge In theoretical physics, a supercharge is a generator of supersymmetry transformations. It is an example of the general notion of a charge in physics. Supercharge, denoted by the symbol Q, is an operator which transforms bosons into fermions, and v ...

". In 2017 he collaborated with

Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, and achieved commercial success after launching a solo career in 1996. His debut stud ...

and ''Atlantic Horns'' on the song "Go Mental". Channel 4 announced they had commissioned ''

'' following appearances from him on Gogglebox: Celebrity Special for Stand Up To Cancer and The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2017. In 2019 he reappeared in the Big Fat Quiz, this time the Big Fat Quiz Of Everything The first series of the show features guests including Ed Sheeran,

Jonathan Ross Jonathan Stephen Ross (born 17 November 1960) is an English broadcaster, film critic, comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He presented the BBC One chat show ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'' during the 2000s, hosted his own radio show on ...

, David Schwimmer, David Haye and Keith Lemon having joined hosts Big Narstie and Mo Gilligan. The programme performed strongly for the network, with The Big Narstie Show rating as one of Channel 4's most popular programmes for young audiences. It was up 94% on the channel's share of 16–24-year-old viewers; up 129% on share for BAME viewers; and up 144% on share for black audiences. A second series has been commissioned. During 2018 Big Narstie also appeared on ''Good Morning Britain'' reading the weather report which went viral. He also appeared on ''Celebrity Crystal Maze'' for Stand Up To Cancer, ''

Celebrity Juice ''Celebrity Juice'' is a British television comedy panel game on ITV2, broadcast since 24 September 2008. The show is written and presented by Leigh Francis in the role of his alter ego Keith Lemon, and its current team captains Laura Whitmore ...

'', ''Would I Lie to You?'' and ''The Chris Ramsey Show''. He also started in the cinema hit ''The Festival''. Big Narstie was caught up in controversy in 2018 during an episode of ''

Britain's Got More Talent ''Britain's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated to ''BGT'') is a televised British talent show competition, and part of the global Got Talent, ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. Presented by Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (c ...

'' when he appears to push contestant Robert White during a live show. The pair resolved the issue publicly on Twitter. In 2020, Big Narstie featured on the track 'Catch 22' by

NAHLI Nahli, (professionally known and stylised as NAHLI), is a British singer and songwriter who has worked with DaVinChe. Her moniker is her birth name combined with her dad's stage name (Natalie and Harley). Early life NAHLI grew up in England wi ...

produced by

DaVinChe DaVinChe, is a British record producer and songwriter from South London, England who is best known as one of the pioneer producers in the UK grime scene. His notable works include Kano's "Brown Eyes" and " P's and Q's", Mez Featuring Stormzy ...

. The track is described as luxurious, defiantly old-skool UK garage-inspired track.

Grime comedy

Big Narstie was cited by music blog 'RansomNote' as one of the first in the ' grime comedy' genre. The blog states "Big Narstie is probably the don of this – at either end of his career you can find lyrics and beats drenched with sorrow, regret and nostalgia" and goes onto talk about the subjective opinion of the audience – "the fact that most outsiders can't tell the difference between rage and satire tells you more about the audience than the performer".

Other activities

Away from music, Big Narstie has featured in the Channel 4 sitcom ''

Dubplate Drama ''Dubplate Drama'' is a British television drama series, created, written and directed by Luke Hyams, first broadcast on Channel 4 on 11 November 2005. The series follows the plight of teenage grime MC Dionne lead actress played by ( Chanel "Shy ...

'' alongside

and

Shystie Chanel Cali (born 25 December 1983), better known by her stage name Shystie, is an English rapper, songwriter and actress. Her mother was born and raised in Barbados and her father was born and raised in Grenada, making her heritage West-Indian. ...

. He has also had a guest appearance in the films ''

Anuvahood ''Anuvahood'' is a 2011 British urban fiction, urban comedy film directed by Adam Deacon, who also plays the film's lead character. It also stars Paul Kaye, Wil Johnson, Ollie Barbieri, Femi Oyeniran, Jocelyn Jee Esien, and Ashley Walters (actor ...

'' and ''London State of Mind''. He is set to appear in the series ''Krish and Lee'' and the film ''Rise of the Foot Soldier 2''. From 29 June 2018, he hosted ''

.'' Big Narstie is a keen

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

fan and supports both Millwall and

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. He also began training in

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ; pt, jiu-jitsu brasileiro ) is a self-defence martial art and combat sport based on grappling, ground fighting (ne-waza) and submission holds. BJJ focuses on the skill of taking an opponent to the ground, control ...

in 2020 in a bid to improve his fitness. He has appeared on a number of panel shows including '' The Big Fat Quiz of the Year'' 2017 in a team with Katherine Ryan and again in 2019, and '' Would I Lie to You?'' on David Mitchell's team. Big Narstie creates YouTube videos including a parody

agony aunt An advice column is a column in a question and answer format. Typically, a (usually anonymous) reader writes to the media outlet with a problem in the form of a question, and the media outlet provides an answer or response. The responses are wr ...

style series ''Uncle Pain''. Big Narstie appeared in '' The Great British Bake Off'' "The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off", series 2, episode 3. He completed two of three challenges; he did not appear at the third challenge due to being taken ill; he was replaced in the challenge by presenter Sandi Toksvig.

Personal life

Big Narstie is of Jamaican descent. He has two children, one of whom Ed Sheeran is godfather to.

Discography

Albums

;Albums ;EPs ;Mixtapes

Filmography

Awards

* Urban Music Awards 2012 Urban Music Award (UMAs) Best Grime Act (Won) * Urban Music Awards 2013 Urban Music Award (UMAs) Best Grime Act (Won) * MOBO Awards 2014 Mobo Award Best Grime Act (Nomination) * Urban Music Awards 2014 Urban Music Award (UMAs) Best Grime Act (Won) * Urban Music Awards 2018 – Best Album (Won) *MVISA 2018 – Best TV Presenter – ''

'' (Won) *

National Reality Television Awards The National Reality TV Awards also known as Reality TV Awards or NRTA is an annual award show produced by the IEG Global and National Media Group . The awards show became the first ever awards ceremony to launch in both the UK and US to celebrat ...

– Best Entertainment Show for ''

'' (Won) * National Television Awards – Bruce Forsyth Entertainment award for ''

'' (Nomination) * Royal Television Society Awards – Best Entertainment Performance for ''

'' (Won 2020) * BAFTA – Best Comedy Entertainment Show – ''

'' (Nomination 2019) Royal Television Society Awards – Best Entertainment Performance for The Big Narstie Show (Won 2021) * BAFTA – Best Comedy Entertainment Show – ''

'' (Won 2021)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Big Narstie 1985 births Living people Black British male comedians Black British male rappers British hip hop singers English people of Jamaican descent Grime music artists Male YouTubers Music YouTubers People from Brixton People from Lambeth Rappers from London