Scorcher (Rags to Riches) : Evening Standard Article

Singer goes from rags to rap in huge record deal

Alistair Foster, Showbusiness Correspondent

27.07.10

P Diddy worked in the music industry for seven years before launching his own clothing line Sean John, and Jay-Z was already famous when he set up Rocawear.

But an up-and-coming London rapper has gone about things the opposite way around to his U.S. contemporaries. Tayo Jarrett, who goes by the stage name of Scorcher, already has his own clothing and video production companies despite the fact that he is yet to release his first single.

Fame now beckons for the 24-year-old entrepreneur from Enfield after he signed a deal which could be worth up to £1 million with record giant Geffen.

Scorcher managed to garner an impressive fanbase for an unsigned act, with his self-produced videos on YouTube attracting more than two million views.

He said: "When I was making my first music video, I was deciding what I was going to wear. But I didn't want to wear anyone else, and I thought, 'Stuff it, I'm going to make my own'. I started designing pieces and I haven't stopped."

Scorcher sells his designs under the name Skywalker, another of his aliases which was his nickname as a child.

His production company, Staple House, has worked with fellow artists Chipmunk,Wiley and Bashy and came about in similar circumstances.

The rapper added: "I hired a director for my first video and I didn't really like what was going on.

"I ended up directing it. I did a lot of research and reading, put my money where my mouth was and just did it.

"That's how the production company came about. I'm just a person where if I think I can do something, I just do it. If I thought I could fly a spaceship, that's it - I'd just do it." Scorcher grew up in Enfield and Tottenham, and served a short sentence in Pentonville prison in 2006 for driving offences, a time during which he says he re-evaluated his life.

He added: "It was a time in my life when I didn't have much going for me, I didn't have much to lose and I got into situations you don't want to be in.

Scorcher's debut single on Geffen, It's My Time, is released on August 29.