Lunitic

Lunitic was born Daniel McDonnell on the 6th of December 1984, In Dublin's Rotunda hospital.

At the age of 6 mounts after an operation on Lunitic's heart, His mother decided to moved them both to Sussex, England. Were they lived with relatives for a year before moving back to Dublin.

Originally from Finglas on Dublin's north side, Lunitic's mother moved them both into her future husband's 3 bedroom house in Ballymun. "At the time this was very strange for me. To go from being an only child, to suddenly having 2 step brothers & a step sister". Lunitic recalls. He found the adjustment from all the counfort's of his grandparents house in Finglas, To a cold house with 3 new cabling's in Ballymun very hard, but soon grew close with his step family especially step brother Danny.

Lunitic alway's had a huge interest in music & performing. His earliest musical influences were The Dubliners & The Pouges who he listened to frequently on record in his grandparents house. "I remember askin' me granda to play "The Last Of The Irish Rover" again & again"

At the age of 10 lunitic took guitar lesson's but soon discovered he was no Hendrix & packed it in after a year & a half. A constant performer at family gathering's, Lunitic began writing his own lyric's at the age of 14 around the same time of his new born brother Roberts 2nd birthday. after his cousin sabrina gave him a copy of the 2pac album "All eyes on me". "When i heard All eyes on me for the 1st time it blew me away, & altho a lot of people wouldn't consider it a classic Hip-Hop album it gave me the inspiration to start written lyric's, so ill always love it".

When Lunitic began to record, all his early song's were done with an american accent but when he met with Ballymun youth leader Dean Scurry it changed for the better & Lunitic started to use his own accent when he was rapping. The 1st track Lunitic recorded using his own accent was a track called "Its all in ye rap's". A track attacking gangsta rappers for calming they were real life gangsters, when in fact for most of them this was a long way from the truth.

In 2003 Lunitic had plan's to recorded an ep but after hooking up with a local producer called Improvised Beats (now Teknikal) & recording 2 track's both the lads were so happy with how the tracks turned out they decided to collaborate more often & this is when Urban Intelligence (A four peace Hip-Hop crew that Lunitic is a founding member of.) was born. In 2005 while Snoop Dogg was touring ireland he heard "The Urban Intelligence ep" & expressed his interest in the music. Snoop then recommended the lads to support fellow rapper Nas.

After the "Homemade Bombs" mixtape & recording less then five tracks in a two year period Lunitic decided to part ways with "Urban Intelligence".

He continued teaching songwritting in working class areas of Dublin, Aswell as becoming part of "Hip-Nos" (Where Irish sean-nós singing meets hip-hop and spoken word from Dublin and New York in a fusion of beats, sounds and songs.)

In 2009 Lunitic released his debut album titled Based On A True Story. The album features artist such as Irish Hip-Hop emcee Rí-Rá, 4Real & Moschops and Damien Dempsey.

Released 01 January 2009