Timothy Lee McKenzie (born 4 January 1989),[1] better known by his stage name Labrinth, is an English singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. Labrinth signed as a recording artist with Simon Cowell's record label Syco Music in 2010, initially collaborating with the English rapper Tinie Tempah. He appeared as a featured artist: uncredited on the single "Pass Out", but later officially on "Frisky"; then he released his first solo single, "Let the Sun Shine" in September. All three songs peaked in the top five on the UK Singles Chart.[2]
Labrinth continued composing for Euphoria in 2022, and the Season 2 Official Score was released in April. The score earned him an additional two Primetime Emmy nominations, for the songs "I'm Tired" and "Elliot's Song", both written alongside Zendaya.
McKenzie was born and raised in Hackney, London, and is of Jamaican descent.[5] He comes from a family of musicians and has eight siblings. Their home was filled with the sound of black gospel music, which their parents loved.[6] When young, he and his eight siblings formed a band called Mac 9.[7] He attended Stoke Newington School and began to pursue a musical career during his school years. His brother, Mac, who is also a music producer, introduced McKenzie at the age of 15 to the art of creating music in his studio. His cousin is the Irish boxer Tommy McCarthy.[8]
Career
2009–2010: Career beginnings
Labrinth started his career by producing the track "Dead End" for recording artist Master Shortie from the album A.D.H.D. (2009). The track generated interest in McKenzie as a producer and songwriter. Guy Moot of EMI Music Publishing offered the artist a publishing deal. From 2010 to 2011, Labrinth mentored the Urban Development Vocal Collective (UDVC) alongside his sister, ShezAr. He also produced multiple tracks for the collective, contributing towards a nine-track project titled Urban Development. The vocalists also provided backing vocals for Labrinth's original tracks.[9][10][11]
McKenzie appeared as an uncredited guest artist on British rapper Tinie Tempah's debut single, "Pass Out", released on 28 February 2010. He had also produced and co-written the track. The single debuted at number-one on the UK Singles Chart, number six on the Irish Singles Chart, and number seventy in Australia.[2][12] Having spent two weeks at the summit in the United Kingdom, "Pass Out" was awarded Best British Single at the 2011 Brit Awards and Best Contemporary Song at the 2011 Ivor Novello Awards. It achieved platinum certification from the British Phonographic Industry for surpassing sales of 600,000 copies.[13] Several months later the two artists collaborated for a second time in the release of Tempah's second single, "Frisky", also co-written and produced by McKenzie. The single debuted at number two in the United Kingdom,[2] beaten only by the charity single "Shout" by Dizzee Rascal and James Corden.[14] The track had chart success in Scotland, where it became the duo's second consecutive number one single, also peaking at number three in Ireland.[12]
Following chart success as a writer and producer, McKenzie was approached in June 2010 and signed to Simon Cowell's record label, Syco. The signing marked a milestone for the label, with McKenzie becoming the first signing in six years who had not gained exposure on one of Cowell's reality talent shows. Through Syco, Labrinth released his debut single, "Let the Sun Shine", on 27 September 2010 in the United Kingdom. The track debuted at number three in the UK, also reaching number thirty-two in Ireland.[12] Labrinth was featured as an artist a third time on 3 January 2011, with the release of British rapper Devlin's single "Let It Go". This had limited chart success, peaking at number fifty-nine in the UK. He also participated in a remake of Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band's "Express Yourself".[2]
Over the course of the next year, Labrinth produced tracks by Yasmin and Ms. Dynamite, as well as the 2011 Children in Need charity single “Teardrop”, on which he also appeared as a guest performer.[15][16] The single, which was performed both at Children in Need 2011 and Children in Need Rocks Manchester on 17 November 2011 debuted at number twenty-four on the UK Singles Chart.[17]
Labrinth released his second single, "Earthquake", on 23 October 2011 – featuring long-term collaborator Tinie Tempah. The single debuted at number two on the UK chart with first week sales of 115,530 copies – the second highest selling number-two behind X Factor winners Little Mix and their cover of Damien Rice's "Cannonball".[2] The track also saw international chart success, peaking at number twelve in Ireland,[12] number five in New Zealand and number twenty-one in Australia;[18] achieving gold certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association and platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand. Following a third single release, "Last Time", which was released on 18 March 2012 as a four-track digitalEP alongside remixes from Knife Party and Gareth Emery, Labrinth released his debut album Electronic Earth on 2 April 2012.[19][20]
On 23 May 2012, Labrinth performed at the Cheltenham racecourse to celebrate the occasion of the Olympic torch coming through Cheltenham. He also performed at several university shows including University of Leeds’ Summer Ball, Nottingham Trent University Graduation Ball, and University of Surrey's End of Year Show. On 29 June, Labrinth performed at VG-lista top 20 in Norway in front of a crowd consisting of 90,000 people. Labrinth also performed at GFest in Preston on 8 September 2012 to celebrate Preston Guild 2012.[21] The song "Beneath Your Beautiful", which features Emeli Sandé was released as the album's sixth single and peaked at number one November 2012 on the UK singles chart, and was Labrinth's first entry into the Billboard Hot 100 at number 34.[22]
In July 2012, it was revealed that Labrinth would be working with Rihanna, which resulted in him co-writing and co-producing her song "Lost In Paradise" from her album 'Unapologetic'.[23][24] Labrinth also collaborated with Ed Sheeran, producing his and Devlin's single "Watchtower", which was released in August 2012.[25] Labrinth also worked with Sheeran in 2014, and produced his single "Save Myself" from the March 2017 album ÷.[26][27]
In October 2014, Labrinth released his single "Jealous", which he wrote during a trip to Nashville.[29] The song peaked at number 7 on the UK Singles Chart in December 2014.[2] The single has received acknowledgement from a number of artists including Adele, who listened to the song to help her cry on command while shooting her "Hello" video, and Jessie Ware, who covered it for the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge.[30][31]
In 2016, Labrinth worked alongside Mike Posner on Posner's widely successful album At Night, Alone. Labrinth is featured and co-wrote on the sixth single, "Silence". The album was officially released on 6 May 2016. "Silence" was written by both Posner and Labrinth. The song was produced by Posner and Terefe. He also produced and was featured in "Make Me (Cry)", Noah Cyrus' debut single, released on 14 November 2016.[36] Labrinth also featured alongside Cyrus in the song's music video and performances on The Tonight Show and The Late Late Show.[37][38] The single peaked at number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 2017.[39] Over the following 2 years Labrinth and Cyrus continued collaborating, with Labrinth lending writing and production duties to Cyrus' May 2017 single "I'm Stuck", September 2017 single "Again", and August 2018 single "Live Or Die".[40][41] In December 2016, Labrinth performed a medley of "Frozen" and "Like A Prayer" at the annual Billboard Women in Music event, where Madonna, who had personally selected him to perform, was honored as Woman of the Year.[42][43]
On 3 May 2018, Labrinth was announced as a member of the supergroup LSD along with Sia and music producer Diplo. It was the first time the three artists have worked together on a single project. According to Diplo, LSD started when he was invited into the studio to write with Labrinth and Sia. Their first single, "Genius", was released via Columbia Records in the US and Syco Music in the UK the same day, along with a psychedelic cartoon visual and the announcement of a forthcoming album.[46][47] LSD released their second single "Audio" the next week and their third single "Thunderclouds" in August, followed by a "Thunderclouds" music video featuring dancer and previous Sia collaborator Maddie Ziegler.[48][49][50] The latter was used as the promotional song for the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, which helped propel it to the top of Billboard & Clio's Top TV Commercials chart for August and September 2018.[51][52][53] It is also LSD's highest-charting single to date, peaking at number 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 17 on the UK Singles Chart.[22][54] In November 2018, the three received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Remixed Recording for their song "Audio (CID Remix Official Dance Remix)".[55] Also in 2018, Labrinth co-produced and featured on Nicki Minaj's track "Majesty" featuring Eminem, which peaked at number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100.[27][22]
In January 2019, Labrinth starred in a Mini Countryman ad, in which he sings a version of “Don't Fence Me In”.[56] A full version of the song was also released with the campaign launch.[56] Following the release of their single "Mountains", LSD released their debut album Labrinth, Sia & Diplo Present... LSD on 12 April 2019.[57][58] That month the group released a video for "No New Friends" featuring Maddie Ziegler and made their first live appearance performing the song on Ellen.[59][60]
2019–2022: Euphoria and Imagination & the Misfit Kid
Following the release of his single "Miracle" in June 2019, Labrinth made his scoring debut when he was announced as the lead composer for season 1 of the HBO drama series Euphoria.[61][62] Inspired by some of the music that Labrinth's manager Adam Leber had shared with him, the show's creator Sam Levinson approached Labrinth to contribute music for the series while he was working on his second solo album.[62][63] Several of Labrinth's original songs are also featured throughout the series, including "Mount Everest" and "All for Us" featuring vocals from the show's lead actress Zendaya.[64] The show's score was released on 4 October 2019 via Milan Records and Sony Masterworks. Characterized as "a mash-up of electronic, R&B, dance and hip-hop sounds", Labrinth's score was positively received and received praise for "perfectly complementing the journey of the main character."[65][63] The following year, Labrinth received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his work in Euphoria;Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for the episode "03 Bonnie and Clyde" and Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics for the song "All for Us",[66] winning the latter as well as an Ivor Novello Award for Best Television Soundtrack.[67][68]
On 31 October 2019, Labrinth announced his sophomore studio album titled Imagination & the Misfit Kid with the single release "Where the Wild Things".[75] The 15 track album, which features guest appearances from Zendaya and Sia, was released on 22 November 2020.[76] The single "Imagination" was used in Apple's "Made in the UK" advert in July 2020.[77] As part of Apple's 'Behind the Mac' series, the ad features UK creative talent working at MacBook laptops including Labrinth himself.[78]
On 9 October 2020, Labrinth released his single "No Ordinary", which was used in the Xbox Series X/S launch trailer.[79] Labrinth also wrote and produced two singles for Sam Smith released that year including "Love Goes", which he is also featured on and comes from Smith's album of the same name, and an original Christmas song "The Lighthouse Keeper".[80]
In 2022, he returned to composing the score for Euphoria, for the show's second season,[83] and also made a cameo in episode four, performing the song "I'm Tired", which later featured on the official score album, released in April alongside a music video for "Mount Everest".[84][85][86]
2023–present: Ends & Begins and The Kitchen
Labrinth's third solo studio album, titled Ends & Begins, was originally scheduled for a release in October 2022,[87][88] but was eventually released on 28 April 2023 by Columbia Records.[89][90] It was preceded by the singles "Lift Off",[91] "Kill for Your Love",[92] "Iridium",[93] and "Never Felt So Alone",[94] although, following the album's delay, "Lift Off" and "Iridium" were removed from the tracklist.[90][95]
Sia Kate Isobelle Furler is an Australian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Adelaide, she started her career as a singer in the acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s. When Crisp disbanded in 1997, she released her debut studio album, OnlySee, in Australia. Sia moved to London and provided vocals for the British duo Zero 7. She released her second studio album, Healing Is Difficult, in 2001 and her third, Colour the Small One, in 2004.
Thomas Wesley Pentz, known professionally as Diplo, is an American DJ and music producer. He is a co-creator and lead member of the electronic dancehall music project Major Lazer; a member of the supergroup LSD, with Labrinth and Sia; a member of electronic duo Jack Ü, with producer and DJ Skrillex; and a member of Silk City, with Mark Ronson. He founded the record company Mad Decent in 2006, as well as the non-profit organization Heaps Decent the following year. His 2013 extended play (EP), Revolution, debuted at number 68 on the US Billboard 200. The EP's title track was later featured in a commercial for Hyundai and is featured on the WWE 2K16 soundtrack.
Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman is an American actress and singer. Her accolades include two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. In 2022, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Australian singer-songwriter Sia has released 10 studio albums, six live albums, 68 singles, and 45 music videos. In 1997, she released her debut studio album entitled OnlySee. It was commercially unsuccessful, and none of its songs were released as a single. Sia released her second album, Healing Is Difficult, in 2001. The album yielded three singles: "Taken for Granted", "Little Man" and "Drink to Get Drunk". The lead single, "Taken for Granted", peaked at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart.
The discography of British musician and producer Labrinth consists of three studio albums, two soundtrack albums, two extended plays (EPs), twenty singles and fourteen music videos.
LSD is a supergroup consisting of British musician and rapper Labrinth, Australian singer-songwriter Sia and American music producer Diplo. The ensemble has released six singles, all of which appear on their self-titled debut album, released on 12 April 2019.
"Genius" is the debut single by pop music supergroup LSD, released on 3 May 2018. It is from the group's 2019 debut studio album, LSD. The song was written by Sia, Labrinth, Diplo and Jr Blender, and produced by the last three with Gustave Rudman. The song impacted the US alternative radios on 19 June 2018. The song is featured in the video games FIFA 19 and FIFA 23 by EA Sports.
"Audio" is a song by pop music group LSD. The song was released on 10 May 2018, and marks the group's second release, following "Genius".
"Thunderclouds" is a song by pop music supergroup LSD. It was released on August 9, 2018, by Columbia Records as the third single from LSD's eponymously named debut studio album, following "Genius" and "Audio". The song was written by Labrinth, Sia, Diplo, King Henry and Jr Blender, and produced by Labrinth, Diplo, and Jr Blender.
Labrinth, Sia & Diplo Present... LSD, also known simply as LSD, is the debut studio album by the music group LSD. Originally scheduled to be released by Columbia Records on 2 November 2018, it was pushed back to 12 April 2019.
"I'm Still Here" is a song by Australian singer-songwriter Sia. It was released as a standalone single on 12 October 2018 by Monkey Puzzle and Atlantic Records in connection with Sia's collaboration with French shoe brand Repetto. It is featured as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of Sia's ninth studio album, Music – Songs from and Inspired by the Motion Picture.
"Mountains" is a song by pop music group LSD. The song was released on 1 November 2018, and marks the group's fourth release, following "Genius", "Audio", and "Thunderclouds".
"No New Friends", sometimes titled "Know New Friends", is a song by LSD from the group's album of the same name, released by Columbia Records on 14 March 2019. The song serves as the album's fifth and final single, following "Genius", "Audio", "Thunderclouds", and "Mountains".
"All for Us" is a song originally written, produced, and performed by English singer Labrinth, released as a single from his album Imagination & the Misfit Kid on 30 June 2019 through Syco Music. A reworked version of the song was featured heavily in the American teen drama Euphoria with vocals from star Zendaya, where it appeared on the first season's soundtrack and won Labrinth the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.
Imagination & the Misfit Kid is the second studio album by English singer-songwriter Labrinth, released on 22 November 2019. The album was recorded in London and New York City and features vocals by singers Sia and Zendaya. While the album did not chart upon release, it entered the charts in 2022 when the single "Mount Everest" was featured in Euphoria, and was included in both of Labrinth's scores for the show.
Music Is the Weapon is the fourth studio album by American electronic band Major Lazer, released on October 23, 2020, via Mad Decent. It is Major lazer's first album in five years since Peace Is the Mission (2015). First announced in 2015, many conflicting statements have been made about the album, with the latest reports being that it will be the final Major Lazer album. It was later announced in 2019 that the album would instead be titled Lazerism, but the name was later changed back to the original title. It is the first album to be released after Jillionaire left the group and was replaced by Ape Drums. A deluxe edition of the album titled Music Is the Weapon (Reloaded) was released on March 26, 2021.
Reasonable Woman is the tenth studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Sia, released by Monkey Puzzle and Atlantic Records on 3 May 2024. Sia wrote the album with Jesse Shatkin and Greg Kurstin, both of whom primarily produced it; other collaborators include Benny Blanco, Jasper Harris, Jim-E Stack, Labrinth. It features guest appearances from Chaka Khan, Kylie Minogue, Labrinth, Tierra Whack, Kaliii, Jimmy Joliff, and Paris Hilton.
"I'm Tired" is a song by English singer Labrinth and American singer Zendaya, released as a single from the season two soundtrack of American TV series Euphoria on 28 February 2022. It was written by Labrinth, Zendaya and the series' creator and director Sam Levinson, and released following the season two finale. The song was also included on the season two score alongside an extended solo version with just Labrinth, and a Zendaya version called "Rue's I'm Tired". At the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards, the song was nominated for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.
Euphoria Season 2 Official Score (From the HBO Original Series) is the second soundtrack by British musician Labrinth, consisting of the score for the second season of the HBO teen drama Euphoria. It was released by HBO and Columbia Records on 22 April 2022.
References
↑ "Interview". CoolFM. 30 March 2011. Archived from the original on 5 April 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
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