Dizzee Rascal: Real Name, Net Worth, Assault Conviction & Career

There aren’t many careers that contain both a Mercury Prize-winning debut and a UK number-one called “Bonkers” — but then there aren’t many artists like Dizzee Rascal. Born Dylan Kwabena Mills in east London, he went from grime pioneer to pop staple, and in 2022 he was convicted of assaulting his former fiancée (BBC News (UK public broadcaster)). Here’s the source-checked picture of that arc: the real name, the money, the music, and what the conviction actually meant.

Real name: Dylan Kwabena Mills ·
Born: 18 September 1984 ·
Studio albums: 9 ·
Most streamed song: “Bonkers” ·
Assault conviction: Yes (2022) ·
Estimated net worth: £3 million

Key facts at a glance

Six facts, one pattern: the identity and career details are locked down by public records, while the money stays private.

What this means: the table splits into hard facts — identity, prize, chart positions, conviction — and soft numbers — height and net worth — that come from profiles and estimates, not primary documents.

What is Dizzee Rascal’s real name?

Dizzee Rascal is not a birth name — it’s a stage identity. The person behind it is Dylan Kwabena Mills, a British rapper and MC born in London in 1984 and raised in Bow, east London (BBC News (UK public broadcaster); National Portrait Gallery (UK national archive)). His mother was Ghanaian and his father was Nigerian, and his father died when Mills was young — a background that shaped the fiercely self-reliant voice on his early records (National Portrait Gallery – see above).

The BBC used his full name in court reporting on the assault case, so the real-name/artist-name split is now part of the public record.

Who is the rapper named Dice?

• “Dice” is not Dizzee Rascal — the name belongs to separate artists such as Dice Raw and Dice.
• Dizzee Rascal has never released under “Dice” alone; his releases carry the full stage name.

Search confusion is understandable: “Dizzee” contains “Dice”, and both are hip-hop-adjacent MC names. But the discographies don’t overlap. If you’re looking for the “Bonkers” artist, search the full name — that’s the only one that matches the Mercury Prize winner.

How tall is Dizzee Rascal?

• Listed height: 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) in most public profiles.
• Not a measurement he has publicly certified.

Height is the kind of “fact” that circulates in profile pages without a primary source. The figure appears consistently, so treat it as approximate rather than verified.

How rich is Dizzee Rascal?

• Estimated net worth: roughly £3 million across media and fan databases.
• No verified financial disclosure — no court filing, company report or official statement backs the figure.

Celebrity net-worth numbers are notoriously soft, and Dizzee Rascal’s case is a good example. The £3 million estimate floats around the internet, but his actual wealth is unknowable from public documents, and the figures that circulate rarely account for anything beyond album sales.

What this means: the verified part of Dizzee Rascal’s identity is the music and the court record; the wealth is the part where the internet improvises.

What happened to Dizzee Rascal?

The short answer: he became a star, then a pop act, then a returning grime artist — and then a convicted assailant. Mills first made noise inside the garage-grime collective Roll Deep, which he joined in 2002 (National Portrait Gallery – see above). His debut album “Boy in da Corner” won the 2003 Mercury Prize when he was 19, and his early singles “I Luv U” and “Fix Up, Look Sharp” reached numbers 29 and 17 on the UK chart (National Portrait Gallery – see above).

After a run of UK number-one singles — “Dance Wiv Me”, “Bonkers”, “Holiday” and “Dirtee Disco” — and the 2010 Brit Award for Best British Male Solo Artist, he played the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics (National Portrait Gallery – see above). Then he did something commercially risky: he retreated from pop. “Raskit” (2017) was a deliberate return to grime and hip-hop (National Portrait Gallery – see above). The serious chapter followed: in 2022 he was convicted of assaulting his former fiancée (BBC News (UK public broadcaster)).

What does Dizzee Rascal do now?

• He keeps releasing music and playing live — the commonly cited discography total is nine studio albums as of 2024.
• He launched the OGZ label during the 2023–present period.
• He remains based in London and continues to work on new material. For the full career rundown, see our profile Dizzee Rascal: Early Life, Best Songs, Net Worth & Latest News.

How much does it cost to book Dizzee Rascal?

• Booking fee is negotiated per event; no official or published rate exists.
• Agent-negotiated and varies by venue, date, and market conditions.

Interested parties should contact his booking agent directly; the information is not public.

Where is Dizzee Rascal right now?

• London is his home base, and he has lived in the city for his whole career.
• Specific venues, studios and dates are not public unless he’s touring.

There’s a recurring “where is he now” search pattern, but location data on a private individual isn’t something reliable sources publish between tour runs. What the record shows is that he’s active, London-based and still releasing music.

The implication: “what happened to Dizzee Rascal” has three answers depending on the decade — ascent in the 2000s, pop ubiquity in the 2010s, and a rebuilding act in the 2020s that now has to carry a conviction alongside a catalogue.

How many songs does Dizzee Rascal have?

Counting exactly is impossible — features, mixtapes and unreleased tracks inflate any number — but the core discography is substantial: nine studio albums released through 2024, and more than 100 tracks across albums, singles and collaborations. The chart data gives a clearer picture than any raw count.

“I Luv U” hit number 29 in 2003, “Fix Up, Look Sharp” reached number 17, and then the pop era produced a run of number ones: “Dance Wiv Me”, “Bonkers”, “Holiday” and “Dirtee Disco” (National Portrait Gallery – see above).

What is Dizzee Rascal’s most famous song?

• Widely considered “Bonkers” (2009) — his biggest crossover hit and a UK number one (National Portrait Gallery – see above).
• Other contenders: “Dance Wiv Me”, “Holiday”, “Dirtee Disco” (National Portrait Gallery – see above).

By streaming and chart metrics, “Bonkers” is the one non-fans know: the loudest, most unmissable track in his catalogue. Grime purists would argue the harder early work matters more, but “most famous” and “most respected” are different questions.

The pattern: the biggest numbers belong to the pop era, but the legacy rests on the grime years.

Was Dizzee Rascal convicted for assault?

Yes. In 2022, Dylan Mills was found guilty at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court of assaulting his former fiancée Cassandra Jones (BBC News (UK public broadcaster)). The case followed an incident in Streatham, south London, on 8 June. He received a 24-week suspended sentence and a restraining order (BBC News (UK public broadcaster) – note: same URL used only once).

The case didn’t end there. After the guilty verdict, Jones gave evidence about Mills’s conduct — including an alleged diss track that referenced the judge (BBC News (UK public broadcaster)). Mills appealed; in January 2023 the conviction was upheld (BBC News (UK public broadcaster)). The BBC noted he was 38 when the appeal outcome was reported (BBC News (UK public broadcaster) – same URL).

The implication: this is the fact that changed his mainstream standing permanently — not because the music stopped mattering, but because the context around it can no longer be neatly separated.

Did Wiley leave Roll Deep?

Yes — and it’s worth getting the details right, because the Roll Deep story gets mangled online. Wiley, the collective’s central architect, left Roll Deep in 2005 to focus on solo work. Dizzee Rascal had joined in 2002 as a founding member (National Portrait Gallery – see above), and by the time Wiley stepped away, Mills’s own solo career was already the bigger story. The group’s lineup shifted repeatedly after that — another reason online timelines get confused about who left when.

The catch: the search question is usually about Dizzee leaving — but on the record, it was Wiley who walked in 2005, while Dizzee’s solo career was already pulling him in another direction.

Key dates in Dizzee Rascal’s career

From Bow to the Brits and back to the underground, the dates line up across sources.

• 1984 — Born in London, raised in Bow, east London (National Portrait Gallery – see above)
• 2002 — Joined Roll Deep as a founding member (National Portrait Gallery – see above)
• 2003 — “Boy in da Corner” wins the Mercury Prize; he is 19 (National Portrait Gallery – see above)
• 2009 — “Tongue n’ Cheek” goes gold/platinum; “Bonkers” tops the chart (National Portrait Gallery – see above)
• 2010 — Brit Award for Best British Male Solo Artist (National Portrait Gallery – see above)
• 2012 — Performs at the London Olympics opening ceremony (National Portrait Gallery – see above)
• 2017 — “Raskit” marks the return to grime (National Portrait Gallery – see above)
• 2022 — Found guilty of assault at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court (BBC News – see above)
• 2023 — Conviction upheld after appeal dismissed (BBC News – see above)
• 2023–present — Continues performing; launches OGZ label

What this means: the timeline splits into two acts — the rise and the reckoning — and the 2022 conviction now anchors how the second half of his story gets told.

Confirmed facts and open questions

Low-confidence celebrity coverage means separating what’s nailed down from what’s circulating.

Confirmed facts

• Real name: Dylan Kwabena Mills (BBC News – see above)
• Born 18 September 1984, raised in Bow, east London (National Portrait Gallery – see above)
• “Boy in da Corner” won the 2003 Mercury Prize (National Portrait Gallery – see above)
• UK number ones: “Dance Wiv Me”, “Bonkers”, “Holiday”, “Dirtee Disco” (National Portrait Gallery – see above)
• Convicted of assault in 2022; appeal dismissed 2023 (BBC News – see above)

What’s unclear

• Exact net worth — the £3 million figure is an estimate, not a disclosure.
• Booking fee — agent-negotiated; no published rate exists.
• Total song count including features, mixtapes and unreleased material.
• His exact whereabouts at any given moment — London-based, but schedules aren’t public.
• Long-term reputational and commercial impact of the conviction — impossible to quantify from public data.

The trade-off: the verified record is short and sharp — a career, a prize, four chart-toppers, a conviction — while the unverified zone is where net worth and “where is he now” speculation rush in.

Key statements on the record

Two institutions carry most of the verified detail on Dizzee Rascal: the National Portrait Gallery’s artist biography and BBC News’ court reporting.

Born in London in 1984 and raised in Bow, east London, Mills joined the garage-grime collective Roll Deep in 2002; his debut album “Boy in da Corner” won the 2003 Mercury Music Prize when he was 19.

National Portrait Gallery (UK national archive) — artist biography

Mills was found guilty at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court of assaulting his former fiancée Cassandra Jones, following an incident in Streatham, south London, on 8 June.

BBC News (UK public broadcaster) — court reporting

After the guilty verdict, Jones gave evidence about Mills’s conduct, including a diss track she said referenced the judge; the appeal against his conviction was dismissed in January 2023.

BBC News (UK public broadcaster) — trial coverage

Why this matters: the gap between what a national archive documents and what a tabloid estimates is exactly where the misinformation lives.

Final take

Dizzee Rascal’s biography is a contradiction that doesn’t resolve neatly: a Mercury Prize-winning pioneer who gave UK grime its mainstream moment, a pop hitmaker whose biggest records still fill dance floors, and a man with a 2022 assault conviction that the appeal courts upheld. The music is streamable and the live shows still sell, but the court record is now part of the package. For promoters weighing a booking, the decision is clear: price in the full story — the pioneer, the pop star and the conviction — or the headlines will write themselves anyway.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• Dizzee Rascal: Biography, Music, and Career of the Grime Pioneer (Britain Daily)
• Dizzee Rascal: Early Life, Best Songs, Net Worth & Latest News (Britain Daily)