As soon as Wayne 'Lotek' Bennett left school he was in the studio, in this case Rollover Studio in London, where he quickly found himself in sessions with everyone from Leftfield to Peter Andre. But his true love was hip hop and he found himself inducted into the ranks of North London's most notorious rap collective, Bury Crew. With them he released tapes and records, organised parties and played his part in keeping hip hop in the UK going in the midst of a drought. He came to the attention of Roots Manuva, who asked him to contribute a couple of tracks to what would become his debut album, "Brand New Second Hand". The musical relationship grew and, as well as contributing two of the standouts on Manuva's follow-up, "Run Come Save Me," Wayne was asked to act as Musical Director for the Roots Manuva live show. It was while dealing with this that Bennett became certain he was ready to step out on his own and began piecing together the band which would become Lotek HiFi. His collaborations with Manuva continued, though, with the track "Move Ya Loin" on "Awfully Deep." Lotek began working with singer Wayne Paul, rapper and clarinettist Aurelius aka Dazzla and toaster Earl J. The band contributed to the "Extra Yard"compilation before releasing two albums with Big Dada, "Lotek HiFi" and "Mixed Blessings" (the latter without Earl J). Bennett later relocated to Melbourne, Australia, where he produced Speech Debelle's Mercury Music Prize-winning album, "Speech Therapy" and released his own solo album, "International Rudeboy," in 2010.

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