Dot Rotten, the musician, rapper, and one of grime music’s pioneers, has died, his family confirmed to BBC. Throughout a career of spent laying emotionally bare hooks over harsh beats, the English artist collaborated with some of the biggest names in the electronic underground on through to pop giants, including Ed Sheeran, Labrinth, Cher Lloyd, and D Double E. He was 37.
Born Joseph Ellis in 1988 in the Stockwell neighborhood of London, England, the musician worked steadily to become a well-known MC and producer in his country’s grime scene, with Dot Rotten serving as an acronym for Dirty on Tracks, Righteous Opinions Told to Educate Nubians. Although his best-known Dot Rotten features were Sheeran’s “Goodbye to You” and Lloyd’s “Dub on the Track,” Ellis spent time coming up in the underground and championing it for the rest of his life, be it on Rinse FM or SB:TV.
In 2012, Ellis scored his own Top 20 hit with the Robert Miles-sampling “Overload.” That next year, he released his debut album, Voices in My Head, and followed it up with 2014’s Interview. Ellis put out a number of impressive self-released mixtapes as Young Dot throughout the aughts, beginning with 2007’s splashy This Is the Beginning, before switching to his Dot Rotten name and continuing that run. His final feature-length mixtape as Dot Rotten was 2020’s 808s and Gunshots. Ellis was quick with a pen when churning out music as Dot Rotten; in an interview, he once claimed that he could write up to four songs in a day, averaging an hour-long recording time for a hook to be completed after crafting the beat.
Ellis took on several pseudonyms over the years, including Three-Six, the Spirit, Big Dotti, and Terror Child. Shortly before his death, he returned to his Dot Rotten moniker to drop a new single—the confessional “Psalms for Praize,” in which he addressed how dedicated he was to his career—that was co-credited to Who’s British?, which ended up being another one of his names.
Despite his revered output and sturdy bonds in the grime scene, Ellis remained humble throughout his career arc. “I’m very grounded. I try to stay very balanced,” he told BBC 1Xtra in 2012. “I have that skill of bringing people together and making things work, and that is what I’m trying to do.”
When the news of Dot Rotten’s death became public, numerous figures in the Grime scene and beyond shared tributes in his honor, including Wiley, Brvtherhood, and Rynsa Man. “Talent in abundance,” wrote Logan Sama, who supported the late musician for over 25 years. “His impact on the scene was not just as a brilliant artist but also the guidance and inspiration he gave to hundreds of other aspiring creators around him. Never, ever received the accolades or rewards for his craft that it deserved. Rest in peace, Dot.”
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