Jamie Byng goes for bling: Dizzee Rascal joins Canongate

Published on Friday 5 March 2010 21:49

THE success stories of Scottish publisher Canongate Books have ranged from prize-winning literary novelists to the best-selling memoirs of president Barack Obama.

• Grime artist Dizzee Rascal is the latest in a line of high-profile musicians to cut a Canongate deal

But yesterday, the Edinburgh-based company unveiled perhaps its most surprising author yet – the platinum-selling rapper and producer Dizzee Rascal.

The Dizzee Rascal Story, to be published in October, promises an intimate look at his life and rise to fame, including the "truth" behind the stabbing that nearly ended his life at the age of 18.

Canongate's editorial director Nick Davies, who negotiated the deal, said that he was "incredibly proud" of what "promises to be a genuinely groundbreaking book".

In a surprising collaboration with the urban music star and his record label Dirtee Skank, it will be published as an illustrated hardback – complete with lyrics and original photographs – as well as an audiobook and in digital format for e-books.

"Not only is Dizzee one of the most talented and innovative musicians alive today, he is one of the most articulate and opinionated – as his lyrics testify," said Mr Davies.

Canongate's early claim to fame came when its director Jamie Byng, who saved the company from bankruptcy in 1994, snapped up rights to the novel Life of Pi, by Yann Martel. It went on to win the Booker Prize and become a huge bestseller.

Last year, Canongate saw its profits soar to 2.6 million – an increase of 800 per cent – after Mr Byng made a fortune publishing two books by Mr Obama.

He had acquired the rights to Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope just as Obama's campaign for the presidency began to take off.

Mr Byng has always taken almost as much interest in music as literature, observers said yesterday, publishing the novels of singer and poet Gil Scott-Heron, who became godfather to his two children.

The Dizzee Rascal Story will be published worldwide as part of a joint venture with Dirtee Books, the newly formed publishing arm of 24-year-old Dizzee Rascal's own independent label, Dirtee Stank Recordings.

Dizzee Rascal's debut album, Boy in da Corner, won him the Mercury Music Prize in 2003, and the next two albums went gold. His latest album, Tongue N' Cheek, has gone platinum. He has had three No1 singles in the past two years and won Best British Male Solo Artist at this year's Brit Awards.

Canongate was once best-known for publishing Scottish literary classics, such as the works of Robert Louis Stevenson or Sir Walter Scott. But the transformed company's recent music publications already include Don't Rhyme for the Sake of Riddlin': The Authorised Story of Public Enemy.

In 2008, Mr Byng acquired the rights to The Death of Bunny Munro, the second novel by rock star Nick Cave.

"Nick Cave's book has been a great success story – we have probably sold about 30,000 in hard back," said Mr Davies. "We also sold it to about 30 publishers around the world."

Canongate worked closely with Cave's record label, paving the way for the Dizzee Rascal publication. "There's definitely been a strong pop -culture strand to our publishing over the years and Dizzee felt like the next step," said Mr Davies.

Dizzee Rascal, born Dylan Mills, was thrown out of four schools. In 2003, he became the youngest ever winner of the Mercury prize.

But that same year, he was chased down and stabbed six times in the Cypriot resort Ayia Napa. "Being so close to death – that changed me," he said later.

Invited to appear on Newsnight on the night of Obama's victory in 2008, he told presenter Jeremy Paxman: "I don't think he could have done it without hip-hop."

Criticised for making light of a historic moment, he said later: "I was proud, yeah, because he's a black man, but without sounding like a bighead, I've had my own achievements as a black man, so I've always believed black people are as capable of doing anything as well as anybody else."

FROM LIFE OF PI TO ELECTRO-GRIME

DIZZIE RASCAL

Based: London.

Age: 24.

Best known for: – Three No1 singles in 18 months: Dance Wiv Me, Bonkers and Holiday. Winning the Mercury Music Award in 2003 at the age of just 19.

Genres: Grime, hip hop, electro hop, electro-grime.

Earnings: multi-millions. Sales of two albums have gone gold, one platinum.

On the record: "It's about time as well," after winning Best British Male act at the 2010 Brit Awards.

Foot in mouth: "I was kind of sceptical about the Obama thing," he told Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight, creating criticism that he was dismissing Barack Obama's historic victory.

CANONGATE

Based: London and Edinburgh.

Best known for: discovering Yann Martel's Life of Pi, the Booker Prize winner. Securing publishing rights to Barack Obama's memoirs – before he emerged as a serious contender for the White House.

Genres: fiction, crime, Scottish classics, biographies, music.

Earnings: 14.7m turnover reported in 2008, the last year available.

On the record: "He is incredibly articulate, a real wordsmith" – Canongate's director, Jamie Byng, above, on Obama.

Foot in mouth: Byng said he "could not respect" Booker Prize judges in 2008, reacting angrily after they declined to include The Spare Room, by Canongate author Helen Gardner, in the prize shortlist.