Grime rapper and producer Dot Rotten dies aged 37

The Guardian - World NewsEN 2 min read 100% complete by Ben Beaumont-ThomasMarch 9, 2026 at 02:53 PM

AI Summary

short article 2 min

British grime rapper and producer Dot Rotten, whose real name was Joseph Ellis-Stevenson, has died at the age of 37 in the Gambia. Rising to prominence in the grime scene in the mid-2000s, he was known for his production skills and combative MCing. He gained wider recognition after signing with Mercury Records in 2011, collaborating with artists like Ed Sheeran and releasing the solo hit "Overload" in 2012. After leaving Mercury Records, Ellis-Stevenson changed his stage name to Zeph Ellis and focused on production, contributing to tracks by Kano and Nines. Tributes have been paid by fellow artists, including Lady Leshurr.

Key Entities & Roles

Key Player Opposition Context

Lady Leshurr 40% P Money 40% JME 40% Stormzy 40% Kano 40% Nines 40% Wiley 40% BBC 50% Ed Sheeran 50% Mercury Records ×260% Gambia 70% Dot Rotten (Joseph Ellis-Stevenson) ×595%

Keywords

dot rotten 100% grime 90% music producer 80% death 70% british rap 60% mc 50% zeph ellis 40% rotten riddims 40%

Sentiment Analysis

Negative

Score: -0.30

Source Transparency

Source

The Guardian - World News

Classification Confidence

90%

Geographic Perspective

Gambia

This article was automatically classified using rule-based analysis.

Topic Connections

Explore how the topics in this article connect to other news stories

No topic relationship data available yet. This graph will appear once topic relationships have been computed.

dot rotten grime music producer death british rap mc zeph ellis rotten riddims

Explore Full Topic Graph

Find Similar Articles

AI-Powered

Discover articles with similar content using semantic similarity analysis.