About Me
Born in Dagenham Essex, and then moved to notorious Peckham South London at the age of three after his parents separated.
His love for music started at a very tender age, as his mother’s partner (who had worked with the late great Bob Marley, soul 2 soul along with many other artists) had a studio at home, so he grew up in a very musically orientated household.
Antonio loved making tunes and recording his voice as he was growing up, he was always very creative. Growing up, his main idols were: Michael Jackson, Biggie Smalls, Mary J Blige & So Solid Crew.
Music always remained a huge factor in Antonio’s (By then –Nicknamed Desperado) life, but it wasn’t until 2003 that his started his music career. He began by writing lyrics with his school friends. It started out as a hobby, but he began spending more and more time on music.
Desper then began clashing other mcs in his school and began to create a buzz around his name. He teamed up with school mate Mc Venom, and together the duo began clashing others. They attended a rave in Catford, and clashed 2 other Mcs (Shortman & Y.Shortman) which was the highlight of the rave, and the talk of the ends for weeks. Then 2 duos saw how much attention they had caused together, and decided to come together as one force and called themselves ‘South Souldiers.’
The boys then put together a mix CD entitled ‘The Regiment South Souldiers.’ They printed up 1,000 CDs and hit the streets distributing. The buzz became huge, and South Souldiers quickly became a household name, they then recruited DJ Big Jim, another one of Despers school friends.
They started performing at various different events as a collective; the buzz was beginning to amplify all over London. South Souldiers then entered a competition to perform at an event for Urban Voices. They performed a track Desper had written a year prior to the event. The track received a good reaction which enabled South Souldiers to get through the first stage which had 150 different acts from London. They then went through 2 more rounds and competed with acts over the UK. Throughout the competition, South Souldiers received press coverage from Young Voices Magazine and The South London Press. The finals were held at Club oceans in Hackney, East London. There was loads of hype and press around the event, MTV filmed and there were over 3000 spectators. South Souldiers’ got through to the final, but came 2nd to a female vocalist. Following the competition was a compilation CD featuring the finalists, plus special guest appearances from the hot Ms Dynamite and Legendary Mr Tippa Irie.
The Souldiers were then approached by a new pirate radio station based in South London called Ontop FM. They were given a 2 hour session twice a week; the show propelled the Souldiers to new heights.
Desper soon became the front man of South Souldiers and soon began collaborating with different artists throughout South London. Desper then crossed paths with MC Spokeman who lived locally, who introduced Desper to hot lyricist ‘Messy’. Together the trio made numerous tracks together and collaborated with artists such as Roadside G’s. Des then decided to recruit MCs Spokeman and Messy to South Souldiers. They then began recording the next mixtape, even though the new members joining had caused tension within the crew.
They made a track entitled ‘Heads Up’ that was heard by Raymond Stevenson, who headed the anti gun crime campaign. The track was chosen to be one of two tracks to front the whole campaign. The campaign was government funded and received press coverage from The South London Press, Young Voices Magazine, and The Times along with numerous local papers. The video for the track was shot by two of the UKs biggest directors and aired on all mainstream video channels such as MTV, MTV Base, The Box, Kiss, Channel U Etc. The track was then performed at various different events.
The campaign catapulted Despers name to amazing heights and his underground buzz was incredible. He jumped on numerous different tunes, CDs and DVDs to further his career as much as possible.
When the campaign was over, everything slowed down for the Souldiers but Despers solo career began to elevate. He started getting booked for raves such as infamous grime event ‘Sidewinder’ and a Choice FM event. 6 months after the campaign, the Souldiers split. Shortman, Venom & Luke Depth went their own way, leaving Desper, Spokeman & Messy.
As disheartening as the split was, this did not hold Desperado back from reaching his dreams. The Souldiers came back hard and began recording their next mixtape entitled ‘Bang your heads’ which was completed in literally a month. Desper continued to work with more artists such as Bashy, Fumin, Roachie, plus many more. The CD had good feedback from the streets.
Desper then began to record his first solo mixtape entitled ‘Bars 4 Days’ with sound engineer DJ one step. The CD featured some of the hottest talent around, such as Little Dee, Messy, Cadice plus many more. The CD was distributed all over London and was very well received.
Since dropping his first mixtape, Despers continued to strive to success. Also as a part of huge grime movement ‘OGz’, Desper has been live on mainstream radios such as Kiss Fm & BBC 1xtra. Still collaborating with various different artists in the scene whilst working on joint Souldiers projects such as the ‘Roll Girl’ single (Video soon on your screens) and bang your heads vol 2. Since arriving in the scene almost 5 years ago, Desperado has achieved alot and continues to graft hard to ensure he gets further. Judging by his work rate, he still has alot to showcase to the scene!this is a rough bio
View the complete Desperado ss tour schedule
