Mickey Avalon and Blake Banks

As with many of his hip hop contemporaries, Avalon’s music seems pretty intrinsically tied in with his turbulent, unhappy upbringing. His father was a heroin addict, whilst his mother provided for the family by dealing cannabis, meaning that Avalon’s early years were marked by uncertainty and trouble. In a cruel twist of fate, his father managed to get clean, but was hit by a car after leaving an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting - the driver was drunk. At the age of nineteen, Avalon was forced to make the heart-wrenching decision to take his father off life support.

Avalon himself struggled with heroin addiction in his late teens; he prostituted himself to pay for his habit, whilst his sister - also an addict - would go on to die of an overdose whilst they were living together. Music gave Avalon his escape from a world of misery, and began to work with ex-MTV producer Simon Rex. He released a self-titled debut album in 2006, and went onto support the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ke$ha on tour. He’s also recorded and toured with Rex and others under the name Dyslexic Speedreaders, but has most recently been focusing on his solo career again, releasing a second album, ‘Loaded’, in 2012 and an EP, ‘I Get Even’, in 2013.