Niyi

Niyi moved to London to study at art university Central Saint Martins, where he subsequently dropped out twice.[5]

Said to have inspired "a generation of London fashion designers",[1] he began his career as a muse for Carri Mundane for her fashion label CassettePlaya in 2005, "until she got another one".[1] He moved into doing club nights and DJing when he found the clubbing scene "too exclusive [..] it wasn't very inclusive at all".[3] At this point Niyi started promoting illegal warehouse raves, but stopped when his biggest promotion was shut down by the police and 4,500 young people were on the street on New Year's Eve.[6] When his mixing style became more well known he had guest slots on BBC Radio 1, XFM, and German On3-radio,[7] and DJed at bigger clubs such as Fabric. Niyi has since stated he now mixes in a more traditional style, but still enjoys "perfectly beat matching surf rock with hardcore-gabba".[7]

Niyi plays the guitar, the trumpet and the clarinet;[5] and began singing and rapping over his own remixes when he moved out of London and started producing music in his parents shed in Chelmsford. He has since collaborated with Adamski under the alias of "Adam Sky".[8]

After touring in Europe with Adamski, Niyi performed at his club for Lady Gaga's first UK show, and has since gone on to perform and DJ in 13 countries. He has performed with Little Boots and the Golden Silvers.[9] He also performed on influential television show TRAXX on ARTE around this time, too. This was shown in both Germany and France.[10]

Niyi has been credited as a source of creative inspiration by various artists such as Tyler The Creator.[11][12][13][14] Niyi's first single "808 Klap" sold out within a week.[9] In 2012 Niyi released his first and only album, which gained little attention.[15]

He was also an occasional contributor to the UK's Big Brother's Big Mouth,[16] this is despite him "not owning a television for more than eight years".[10]

In 2011, Niyi decided to put his music on hold, and do his A-levels- which he failed to complete whilst at secondary school. He studied these intensively at City of Westminster College[17] in nine months, and was awarded a place to study English and Education at St John's College, Cambridge in 2012.

After being featured in an article in the university newspaper in 2013,[4] the story was picked up on by the UK press. Pieces were published in tabloids, broadsheets,[18][19] and on ITV News.[20]

As a result of this attention Niyi then wrote an article for UK newspaper, The Guardian, detailing his reasons for leaving music and his experience of St John's College, Cambridge. The article was the most read piece on The Guardian website for two days;[21] it was mentioned on Twitter by figures such as Labour Party (UK) MP Diane Abbott,[22] and journalist Mariella Frostrup - who stated it was "the best review she'd ever had".[23] He held a talk for the TEDTalks event TEDxCambridgeUniversity, where he elaborated on his experience of integrating Cambridge University, and how that shaped his critical approach to racism in education, titled "The Power of Anomaly".[24]

• Official Website
• Niyi on Myspace