A native of Walsall, England, Goldie was born to a Scottish-Jamaican couple and put up for adoption. He bounced around child-care homes and several sets of foster parents during his childhood years, and became fascinated with the rise of hip-hop, breakdancing, and graffiti art.
By 1986, he was involved with breakdancing crews around his home of Wolverhampton; after making several trips to London for all-day breakdancing events. He also spent time in New York and Miami, it was in Miami where he met his father and started working in a market stall selling customised gold teeth. However he decided to move back to England in 1988. For a time, Goldie worked at the Try 1 shop in Walsall (also selling gold teeth), then moved to London.
He began hanging out with two fellow heads from the British hip-hop scene, Nelle Hooper and 3-D, and by 1991 he'd been introduced to the breakbeat culture that birthed jungle. Goldie was hooked on the sound of raw breakbeat techno, and he gradually switched his allegiance to jungle from the British hip-hop scene that later generated trip-hop.
He recorded his first single as Ajax Project, then debuted on Reinforced as Metalheadz with two 1992 singles, "Killermuffin" and "Menace." The 1993 single "Terminator" broke him into the jungle scene, and he helped the genre jungle grow massively.
His first major-label single was "Timeless," and his debut album of the same name followed in August 1995. He gained additional fame in early 1996, when an American tour supporting Björk sparked a relationship between the two and led to a brief engagement period before they called off a wedding. Goldie resurfaced in 1998 with a high-profile follow-up, Saturnz Return an epic two-disc set. The album tanked with critics and fans, leading to a return to the underground later that year with the Ring of Saturn EP.
Goldie's career over the next two decades became less and less music-focused. He turned his hand to acting, appearing in Guy Richies's Snatch, the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough, and the perennial BBC soap opera Eastenders.
He was awarded an MBE on the Queen's 2016 Honours list for services to music and young people. A career-spanning compilation, The Alchemist was released by Rhino in 2013. His third solo studio album and first in nearly two decades, entitled The Journey Man, came out earlier in 2017.
Watch the full episode for free: https://londonreal.tv/goldie/
By 1986, he was involved with breakdancing crews around his home of Wolverhampton; after making several trips to London for all-day breakdancing events. He also spent time in New York and Miami, it was in Miami where he met his father and started working in a market stall selling customised gold teeth. However he decided to move back to England in 1988. For a time, Goldie worked at the Try 1 shop in Walsall (also selling gold teeth), then moved to London.
He began hanging out with two fellow heads from the British hip-hop scene, Nelle Hooper and 3-D, and by 1991 he'd been introduced to the breakbeat culture that birthed jungle. Goldie was hooked on the sound of raw breakbeat techno, and he gradually switched his allegiance to jungle from the British hip-hop scene that later generated trip-hop.
He recorded his first single as Ajax Project, then debuted on Reinforced as Metalheadz with two 1992 singles, "Killermuffin" and "Menace." The 1993 single "Terminator" broke him into the jungle scene, and he helped the genre jungle grow massively.
His first major-label single was "Timeless," and his debut album of the same name followed in August 1995. He gained additional fame in early 1996, when an American tour supporting Björk sparked a relationship between the two and led to a brief engagement period before they called off a wedding. Goldie resurfaced in 1998 with a high-profile follow-up, Saturnz Return an epic two-disc set. The album tanked with critics and fans, leading to a return to the underground later that year with the Ring of Saturn EP.
Goldie's career over the next two decades became less and less music-focused. He turned his hand to acting, appearing in Guy Richies's Snatch, the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough, and the perennial BBC soap opera Eastenders.
He was awarded an MBE on the Queen's 2016 Honours list for services to music and young people. A career-spanning compilation, The Alchemist was released by Rhino in 2013. His third solo studio album and first in nearly two decades, entitled The Journey Man, came out earlier in 2017.
Watch the full episode for free: https://londonreal.tv/goldie/
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