Kwasi Danquah (born September 14, 1986), better known by his stage name Tinchy Stryder, is a British pop grime vocalist. Stryder is from Bow, East London and attended St Bonaventure’s Catholic Comprehensive School in Forest Gate, Newham; he later enrolled as a student at the local university, the University of East London, where he completed his BA degree in moving image and animation in 2009. He rose to popularity with the song Take Me Back, (a collaboration with Taio Cruz) which peaked at #3 on the UK Singles Chart in January 2009. He then released the aptly named song Number 1, (a collaboration with N-Dubz) which entered the UK chart at #1 on 26 April 2009.
Stryder started at the age of 14 on pirate radio sets in East London with other well known grime MCs such as Wiley and Dizzee Rascal. His stage name derives from the video game Strider which he played when he was young and from the nickname “Tinchy” given to him due to his short stature: his height at 5’1” (1.55m) making him the shortest male artist ever to top the UK Top 40. Tinchy made a number of appearances on Sky’s Channel U and especially their 1Xtanra radio show taking part in freestyles, sometimes joined by his crew Ruff Sqwad. Tinchy Stryder was part of a spectacular line up at The O2 arena 3D ELEKTRO RAVE alongside Caspa and Rusko, Frankmusik, High Contrast and Dancing Robot Music.
