Charlie Ian Paul Rouillon (born 20 August 1981), known professionally as Charlie Sloth, is a British DJ,

hype man A hype man, typically in hip hop music, is a backing vocalist who supports the primary performer with exclamations, interjections, or ad-libs in an attempt to increase an audience's excitement or engagement. Origins Early hype men included Keef C ...

, producer and TV presenter.

Early life

Charlie Ian Paul Rouillon
was born on 20 August 1981. He was raised in the London Borough of Camden and attended Haverstock School. He is an avid supporter of

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founded in ...

Career

Most of Sloth's career as a radio DJ has been spent on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

and BBC Radio 1Xtra, presenting ''The Rap Show'' on Saturday nights and his weeknight late show ''The 8th''. He was previously a presenter on the weekday drivetime show on BBC Radio 1Xtra. His trademark freestyle brand, ''Fire in the Booth'', has been described as "...a real mark of prestige in the scene, especially for newcomers" with MCs from grime and hip-hop coming into the studio to perform. Akala, Avelino, Devlin, Professor Green, K Koke,

Lowkey Kareem Dennis (born 23 May 1986), better known by his stage name Lowkey, is a British rapper and activist from London. He first became known through a series of mixtapes he released before he was 18, before taking a hiatus from the music busi ...

, Mic Righteous, Bugzy Malone,

Big Narstie 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 crew "N Double A," thoug ...

, Tinie Tempah,

Wretch 32 Jermaine Sinclaire Scott (born 9 March 1985), better known by his stage name Wretch 32, is a British rapper, singer and songwriter from Tottenham, North London. He was a member of the grime collective Combination Chain Gang, before forming The ...

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals and creatures * A male duck * Drake (mythology), a term related to and often synonymous with dragon People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family ...

, Big Shaq,

Migos Migos () were an American hip hop group founded in Lawrenceville, Georgia, in 2008. The group was composed of rapper Quavo, his nephew Takeoff, and their "cousin" friend Offset. Quavo is from Athens, Georgia, while Offset and Takeoff were bo ...

and others have performed on ''Fire in the Booth.'' Canadian rapper Drake's appearance was "...four or five years in the making", with Sloth noting in 2018 that it was one of his favourite moments of the show.

2007 – 2008

Sloth came to notability in 2007 after he won Most Original Video at the CraveFest Awards Canada for music video "Guided Tour of Camden". He also created a weekly online video series ''Being Charlie Sloth'', which was picked up by WorldStarHipHop.com. The show ran for 59 episodes. In 2008, Sloth won Best Rap/Hip-Hop/R&B Unsigned Artist at the CraveFest awards in Canada. He released ''Hard Being Good'' in the same year.

2012 – present

Sloth presented the daily drivetime show on BBC Radio 1Xtra from September 2012 until November 2017 On 6 November 2017, Sloth began presenting a new late-night show, ''The 8th'', which was simulcast on Radio 1 and 1Xtra from Monday to Thursday from 9 until 11 pm. On 3 October 2018, Sloth announced he would be leaving BBC 1Xtra, with his last planned show being on 3 November. This was however cut short on 20 October when Radio 1 "agreed with Charlie" that he would not be completing his remaining 10 shows. This followed Charlie Sloth controversially "storming the stage" at the Audio and Productions Awards show on 18 October. On 14 January 2019, Sloth announced via

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

that he would be joining

Apple Music Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

and

Beats 1 Apple Music 1, previously branded as Beats 1, is a 24/7 music radio station owned and operated by Apple Inc. It is accessible through iTunes or the Apple Music app on a computer, smartphone or tablet, smart speaker (such as the Apple HomePod), ...

and bringing ''Fire In The Booth'' over. He also hosts the Rap Show and curates playlists for Apple Music. In August 2020 it was announced that Sloth had signed a deal with Jay Z's Roc Nation. The deal is a partnership which sees Roc Nation look after all of his assets on a worldwide deal.

Personal life

Political views

In November 2019, along with 34 other musicians, Sloth signed a letter endorsing Labour Party leader

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...

in the 2019 UK general election with a call to end

austerity In economic policy, austerity is a set of Political economy, political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through Government spending, spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three prim ...

Discography

Albums

* ''The Plug'' (2017)

Mixtapes

* ''The Big Boot'' (2004) * ''Secret Society'' (2006) * ''Hard Being Good'' (2008) * ''The Black Book'' (2010) * ''Hood Heat Vol. 1'' (2014) * ''Hood Heat Vol. 2'' (2015)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sloth, Charlie 1981 births Living people English hip-hop musicians English record producers Grime music artists BBC Radio 1 presenters British hip-hop DJs DJs from London People from Camden Town BBC Radio 1Xtra presenters