Find the school where Dizzee Rascal got his break

The artist otherwise known as Dylan Mills now has multiple number one singles and various musical accolades, but he had a tough upbringing, raised as he was, "years ago on a run-down housing estate in Bow" by his Ghanaian mother, Priscilla, (his Nigerian father died when he was two). Though he now lives in Kent, and occasionally sounds off about Bow, he still admits he goes back all the time and loves it.


It was here on the Bow/Poplar borders that Dizzee got his break, partially as a result of founding Roll Deep with other Bow-based MCs in 2002, but initially as a result of his work at Langdon Park school, and the support he received from the then Head of Arts, Tim Smith.

Dizzee was, by all accounts, a disruptive pupil, but particularly took to Mr Smith's music teaching, and using Cubase music software during year 10 to produce some of his first music. This led to his joining summer holiday music workshops with Tower Hamlets Summer University, and his mother buying him some first turntables. The rest is history.

Langdon Park School is on Byron Street/St Leonard's Road, E14. Read more about Dizzee and Tim Smith in an article here or here, or for more about the school you could possibly try here.

_{^Picture courtesy of neonwar^}