Biography
The Start
Raised in a small town in the north of England called Huddersfield, as the only black family living on a middle-class estate. Danny Platinum grew to be no stranger to standing out. At the age of 4 years old, his first musical experience started in The New Testament Church of God, playing the drums for the choir. Naturally gifted he played with them every Sunday without even practicing. With music running in genes, his farther, also a saxophonist took the initiative to buy Platinum his first drum kit. “My parents have always been extremely supportive of me, always pushing me in my musical ability”.
Out growing his drum kit, Platinum grew older, this grew his passion for music even more, following his natural gifts into the musical arts.
Although he isn’t religious, Danny would never forget his musical roots “I owe a lot of my musical inspiration to The New Testament Church of God”. This is where he stumbled across his first mentor, the Channel 4 talent award winning Daniel “MC WiZe” Cox. MC WiZe played a massive part in his life, taking 10-year-old Platinum under his wing, teaching him the very first foundations of rapping, producing and Hip-Hop culture. MC WiZe gathered 4 other boys from the church, forming a group called Lil Mysteries. Making their own songs and touring around other churches and talent shows in the North of England, creating lifelong memories together.
December 2007, MC WiZe took a turn for the worst and was diagnosed with having a brain tumour. With losing the use of his limbs and speech, 13-year-old Platinum didn’t see much of him. He knew his mentor was ill but didn’t know the extent and the condition he was in. He carried on living life thinking that WiZe would get better and continue teaching him more about music and hip-hop culture, but he was in for a big shock.
It was announced that on the 25th July 2008, his close friend and mentor passed away at the age of 22. Although he didn’t get to say his goodbyes face to face, he gave WiZe a good farewell by performing a song remembering him at his funeral to over 200 people, ending in a standing ovation. Mc WiZe’s death, gave Platinum the drive to continue his passion, promising himself to owe his musical success to his late mentor, who inspired Platinum to reach his best potential, finding his true passion in life. “WiZe is one of the biggest motivations as to why I must succeed”.
With the loss of his mentor, all he had now was what learned and some music making software. His farther bought him a microphone and some new studio monitors, making it easier for him to make music by himself.
Teenage Years
At 13 years old this is when Danny jumped off the porch, having a little more freedom, being able to stay out later after school. He took it upon himself to adventure through the gritty and dangerous parts of Huddersfield. Roaming the streets, going to drink ups and gangster parties with his gangster friends. Although Danny was from a nicer area he never hid where he was from and fitted in very well “because I did music and was pretty good at it, I was able to connect with the street guys as they all did music too”. Proud of his roots, he invited a good portion of them to his house to make music and to meet his family. This time in his life was good for his growth, it allowed him to be street smart, an attribute that carried him throughout the rest of his years.
As he grew older, Danny increased his music creation abilities, making a name for himself around his town as the young and gifted music producer. While he was doing this, he picked apart the music industry as a whole and saw that there was no rapper from the north of England who was a big name. At 17 Danny Platinum formed a creative label called "MAJOR", being a producer and artist on the label. “I call it a creative label opposed to a record label because we deal with creativity, not just music, but clothing and video's, we may venture into other creative industries as we grow”. This is when he released his self-produced, mixed and mastered, full-length project “That’s Just Me.”
Moving To London
Its 2016, Platinum is now in his early 20’s and the head of a fully functioning creative label. He added one more rapper under the label, a videographer and a graphic designer who makes all the mixtape covers, posters, flyers and any other promo material that the label needs and a DJ. After running the label for around 4 years, the label was to be discontinued due to opposed visions within the camp. This was a blessing in disguise as he was gearing up to move to London to pursue his music career further. “Although I didn’t want MAJOR to end, it turned out to be a good thing as I could go down to London with a clean slate”.
A year later, Danny packed his bags and moved to London finishing the last year of his bachelor’s degree in music production. This was a giant shock to his system; he wasn’t used to the lifestyle. The biggest shock was how big the buildings were, he says “Looking up at buildings with over 40 floors all across the city thinking to myself, how am I going to conquer all this by myself”. A northern boy from Huddersfield moving to the big city, going from having everything he needed, to starting at zero in London.
Being a driven, pro-active person, he took his talents to the streets and started busking all over London. Areas such as Oxford Street, Kings Cross, Hammersmith, Stratford, Shepherds Bush and more. His performance consisted of freestyling about people as they walked past. He was received very well by the city but still was struggling to find the success that he deserved. Until one day his speaker broke, this left him thinking about what other ways he could make a living whilst doing music. So he had the idea to rap on the London Underground. “This was way better because the passengers had nowhere to go so, they had to listen, when they did, 98% of the time the liked it”. This was a great success as he was able to sustain himself making at least £500 a week without fail, with his highest earning week being £1,000.
The Break Through
After freestyling on the Underground for almost 2 years, Covid hit. With no audience, he had a lot of spare time like everybody else. Halfway through the pandemic, Platinum boosted his portfolio, and engagement, releasing one song a week over 26 weeks. Towards the end of the pandemic Danny ventured out to the streets again filming content around his freestyles. This was where he found his niche gaining a large following. Going viral on Instagram blogs and TikTok, he captured the hearts of the people as his positive energy is so infectious. As his audience continues to engage, share, like and repost, we see Danny Platinum’s platform continuously growing. “I'm so grateful for my fans as I have been putting in work for so many years and to see it payoff is a blessing.”
With his early musical upbringing and the inspiration from WiZe firmly engraved in his mind heart and soul, Platinum is still on his quest to spread his positive energy across the globe.