Dappy | |
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Dappy and Tulisa Contostavlos, 2012
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Background information | |
Birth name | Costadinos Contostavlos |
Born |
Camden, London, England |
11 June 1987
Origin | London, England |
Genres | |
Occupation(s) | |
Instruments | vocals |
Years active | 2000–present |
Labels |
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Associated acts | |
Website | www |
Costadinos Contostavlos (born 11 June 1987), better known by his stage name Dappy, is an English singer, songwriter, rapper, and actor. He is best known for being the lead singer of the Camden-based grime trio N-Dubz, with his cousin Tulisa, and Fazer. He was known for his slightly unusual dress sense and his love for what he describes as "eye-catching headwear". His trademark was wearing a selection of woolly chullos (sometimes referred to as "Dappy hats"), turning up one or both of the ear-flaps of the hat.
Born and raised in Camden Town, North London, Contostavlos grew up with his parents, Byron Contostavlos and Zoi Agorou and older brother Spiros. His father had been a member of the group Mungo Jerry. Byron died on 12 April 2007. He is of Greek-Cypriot descent.
When Contostavlos was younger, he attended Richard Cobden Primary school, then St Aloysius secondary, a Roman Catholic boys-only school in Islington, attending for a year before being expelled for truancy. In N-Dubz's book Against All Odds: From Street Life to Chart Life, Dappy says that he doesn't remember the school "because I wasn't there often". He then attended Bishop Douglass School when he was around twelve years old, where he got into fights "almost everyday", which "...always started if someone had been making fun of me or something stupid".