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Riko Dan

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Riko Dan
Birth nameZane Williams
Also known asRiko
OriginBow, London, England
Genres
OccupationMC
Years active1994–1999; 2003–present[5]
Member ofRoll Deep
Formerly of

Zane Williams, better known by his stage name Riko Dan and formerly by the mononym Riko, is an English multi-genre MC from Bow, East London.[1] He rose to prominence in 2004 as a member of the pioneering grime collective Roll Deep, of which he remains an active member, and is also established in other sound system genres including bashment, jungle, and dubstep,[4] with a prolific discography as a featured artist.[7] He has charted on the UK singles chart with the 2024 Rudimental, Skepsis and Charlotte Plank collaboration "Green and Gold".[8]

Career

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Riko has performed as an MC since the age of fifteen, when he would rap over hardcore at house parties and later jungle on pirate radio.[5][4][1][9] He used various aliases in his youth including Zany Ranks, Zany Banton and Jookz before settling on Riko, in honour of a friend of the same name who died in a car crash.[1] In 1994, his first radio show saw him MCing on Pressure FM in Bow with the station's founder, Jamie B, as the DJ. He met DJ Slimzee, who later co-founded Rinse FM, on the station the following year.[10] He had befriended multiple members of Bow-based UK garage group Pay As U Go at the age of about sixteen through family ties,[5] and has claimed he would have likely been a member earlier had he not been incarcerated.[2] He was released from jail in December 2002 and joined the group in summer 2003, once its sound had shifted from garage to grime and members Wiley, Flowdan and Maxwell D had left to form their own crews.[5] Within around eight months of him joining the crew, Pay As U Go disbanded.[5]

In early interviews, Riko emphasised that he wanted his music to encompass many genres including grime, garage, and bashment.[11][2] His first solo appearance was on Nasty Crew's "Cock Back" alongside Crazy Titch in 2003,[1] and he has claimed that he was asked by Marcus Nasty to join the crew but declined due to his ties to Bow.[5] He joined Wiley and Flowdan's pioneering grime collective Roll Deep in 2004, first appearing alongside the full crew on "Flame Grilled Whopper", having already collaborated with Wiley on a solo vocal version of "Ice Rink".[1] DJ Target produced his debut solo single, "Chosen One", which was released in 2004.[2] He featured prominently on Roll Deep's 2004 Creeper mixtape series and contributed towards their 2005 debut album In at the Deep End,[11] which entered the UK Albums Chart at number 50 and marked his chart debut.[12] As part of Roll Deep, he also appeared on Top of the Pops, providing backing vocals on a 2005 rendition of "The Avenue".[3] He subsequently began recording a debut solo album for Sony Music, which was to include the songs "Dead That" (featuring God's Gift) and "Don't Want You Back" (featuring Breeze), but the plans were scrapped when he returned to jail in 2006.[5] His charges were dropped after eight months[5] and his debut mixtape The Truth Vol. 1 was released independently, credited to Roll Deep Recordings, in 2008.[13]

He went on to appear on all Roll Deep albums except their pop rap albums Winner Stays On (2010) and X (2012), for which they involved a smaller number of members.[5] He released his second solo mixtape, Sleeping Giant, in 2010 via Billy 'Daniel' Bunter's label, Slaughter House Rydims, through which he also released the extended plays Blowing Up Again (2010) and Warfare (2011).[3][14] Slipmatt was credited as a mixing engineer on the lead single for Sleeping Giant, "The Phone Call".[14] After becoming a father, he "put [music] on the backburner for a year", before featuring on the title track of Terror Danjah's 2012 album Dark Crawler[15] and releasing a 2013 mixtape, Rise of the Farda, via Logan Sama's Adamantium label.[3]

In the mid-2010s, he began experimenting in recording what he has described as "dark" and "abstract" bass music, collaborating with record producers such as Rabit, Mumdance and Ziro.[5] He featured on producer Wen's 2015 single "Play Your Corner", which peaked at number 96 on the UK Physical Singles Chart,[16] and The Bug's 2016 single "Iceman", which appeared on a double single also featuring D Double E and reached number 23 on the same chart.[7] In 2018, he released the Hard Food EP on Pinch's record label Tectonic, marking the label's hundredth release.[17][4][18] The following year, he released a pair of grime singles, "CR7" and "Farda", via Logan Sama's labels Keepin' It Grimy and Adamantium.[5] Following the success of Wiley's 2019 single "Boasty", Riko was invited into his newly established dancehall crew Boasty Gang, and contributed both solo songs and crew cuts to their eponymous 2020 album, including the singles "Sorry" and "Informer".[6] The same year, he released the Trends-produced single "Run Dem Down", previously a dubplate dating back to 2015.[19] In 2023, he collaborated with Slimzee and Boylan on the single "Mile End". The song was the first release on the FWD>> record label, born out of the events company in partnership with Sony.[20][21]

In 2024, he featured alongside Charlotte Plank on the Rudimental and Skepsis single "Green and Gold", which peaked at number 29 on the UK Singles Chart.[8] He appeared at Capital FM's Summertime Ball to perform the song.[22] Other notable appearances in 2024 included a feature on K Motionz and ArrDee's "Heavyweight", which was released via Universal and reached number 30 on the New Zealand Hot Songs Chart.[23]

Personal life and artistry

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Riko raps in what he has described as a "Cockney yardie" style of Jamaican Patois.[1][9] He founded the short-lived crew Cemetery Warriors alongside fellow Caribbean-British MCs Flowdan, Killa P and God's Gift, known for their similar vocal delivery.[10][3] Riko has claimed to have imitated dancehall deejay Bounty Killer's style in his early teens before finding his own, and his nickname London City Warlord is a variation on Bounty Killer's, The Warlord.[4] He credits dancehall culture as a "very important" influence on his style.[24]

Riko has credited MC Buckie as the first artist he looked up to in the London pirate radio scene[5] and has cited Bounty Killer, Capleton, The Notorious B.I.G., Mobb Deep, and the Wu-Tang Clan among his formative musical influences.[1][4] He has served time in jail, including a sentence for commercial burglary between 1999 and December 2002[10][5] and an eight-month spell in 2006 for an offence where the charges were dropped.[5] He has spoken openly about his criminal history, telling RWD Magazine in 2004 "I regret all of it",[2] and later collaborated with Operation Trident on the video for his 2010 single "The Phone Call", which condemns gun and knife crime and was produced for their 'Stop the Guns' campaign.[9][25] He is an avid Manchester United fan and presented the NTS Radio football talk show Verbal Volley between 2015 and 2016, latterly joined by DJ Karnage and Discarda.[1][26][27] He was involved in building the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Mumdance In Conversation With Riko Dan". Mumdance x Boiler Room 'In Conversation With' Podcast. 2016-06-15. Boiler Room. Retrieved 2025-01-11.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "MC Riko". RWD Magazine. 2004-06-30. Archived from the original on 2004-08-14. Retrieved 2025-01-11.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Gibbins, Paul (2018-04-22). "Rise of Da Farda with Riko Dan". Paul Gibbins on Medium.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Abiade, Yemi (2018-02-28). "Vibrations: Roll Deep Man Riko Dan On His 13 Favourite LPs". The Quietus.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "DJ Argue: Grime History Lesson with Riko Dan - 22nd March 2019". Grime History Lesson. 2019-03-22. Rinse. Rinse FM. Retrieved 2025-01-11.
  6. ^ a b Powell, Jon (2021-09-13). "Wiley returns with new album 'Anti-Systemic'". Revolt.
  7. ^ a b "BUG FT D DOUBLE E songs and albums - full Official Chart history". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2025-01-12.
  8. ^ a b "RUDIMENTAL songs and albums - full Official Chart history". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2025-01-11.
  9. ^ a b c Hancox, Dan (2018). Inner City Pressure. London: William Collins. p. 38, 45, 126. ISBN 978-0-00-825713-2.
  10. ^ a b c Marcus, Ezra (2015-01-12). "London City Warlord: An Interview with Riko Dan". Noisey.
  11. ^ a b Collins, Hattie (2005-05-23). "'We're not just moody hood-rats'". The Guardian.
  12. ^ "ROLL DEEP songs and albums - full Official Chart history". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2025-01-11.
  13. ^ Clark, Martin (2008-04-01). "The Month In: Grime / Dubstep - Pitchfork". Pitchfork.
  14. ^ a b "Gone To A Rave #46: Billy 'Daniel' Bunter (And A Wee Bit Of Slipmatt)". Ransom Note. 2015. Retrieved 2025-01-12.
  15. ^ Ryce, Andrew (2012-10-01). "Terror Danjah - Dark Crawler - Album Review". Resident Advisor.
  16. ^ "WEN FT RIKO DAN songs and albums - full Official Chart history". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2025-01-11.
  17. ^ Murray, Robin (2018-02-27). "Listen: Mumdance x Riko Dan Spar On 'Hungry'". Clash Magazine.
  18. ^ Morgenthaler, Sean (2018-03-27). "New Adds: BAUM, Riko Dan & more!". KXSC Radio.
  19. ^ Hutchinson, Kate (2015-08-21). "Slimzee's favourite tracks". The Guardian.
  20. ^ Eede, Christian (2023-10-25). "FWD>>, the legendary London club night, launches label with Slimzee, Boylan and Riko Dan collab: Listen". DJ Mag.
  21. ^ Cardew, Ben (2023-10-25). "Celebraving is more than mere revival: Bugged Out! at Drumsheds". Line Noise on Substack.
  22. ^ Prance, Sam (2024-06-16). "Capital Summertime Ball Setlist: Every Song Performed At The 2024 Summertime Ball". Capital.
  23. ^ "Official Aotearoa Music Charts - Hot 40 Singles". Official New Zealand Music Chart. 2024-05-31. Retrieved 2025-01-13.
  24. ^ Collins, Hattie (2016). This Is Grime. Hodder & Stoughton. p. 162. ISBN 9781473639270. Archived from the original on 2020-09-26. Retrieved 2024-12-29.
  25. ^ Hancox, Dan (2016-02-18). "Party politics: why grime defines the sound of protest in 2016". The Guardian.
  26. ^ Black, Billy (2015-10-09). "5 Man United Moments with Riko Dan". Crack Magazine.
  27. ^ Welsh, April Clare (2016-06-09). "NTS football and grime show to be video-streamed for Euros". Fact Magazine.
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