Desiigner

American rapper Desiigner was born Sidney Royel Selby III in Brooklyn, New York in 1997. He comes from a musical lineage and is the namesake of his grandfather Sidney 'Guitar Crusher' Selby, an accomplished blues musician. Selby grew up in the tough housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant district of Brooklyn and after being the victim of a shooting at the age of 14, embarked on his musical career as a rapper, initially going under the name Designer Royel prior to becoming Desiigner. His debut single 'Panda' topped the Billboard 100 and was nominated for the Best Hip-Hop Video Award at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. Lyrically, the song is about Selby's obsession with one of BMW's high end SUV models and the quick fire vocal delivery coupled with heavy hip-hop production by the UK producer Menace created one of the most distinctive hip-hop records of recent years.

With his recording career taking off, away from the studio Desiigner courted controversy in his private life. He was arrested in 2016 after police stopped a car in which he was travelling and discovered guns and drugs. In many genres of music this could have been a career-ending incident because sponsors and record companies tend to distance themselves from such negative publicity but the incident did no harm to Selby's growing credibility amongst the hardcore rap and hip-hop community. Selby was later acquitted of the felony gun charge. In 2018 he announced the release of his debut EP 'L.O.D.'.